Advertise on podcast: Pratchat - a Terry Pratchett and Discworld book club

It’s another little episode about a delay – but this time, only until later this month! To tide you over, here’s a little bit cut from the full Discworld Noir chat, in which guest Leena van Deventer helps us recommend some other games. Some brief episode notes: The fan-made German Discworld adventure game is Ein Scheibenwelt-Adventure by Raphael Kirschke, published in 2003. Leena suggested looking in indie game directories, including the Interactive Fiction Archive, itch.io, and Steam. (Ben has a page on itch.io where you can find some of his tabletop RPGs.) Ben struggled to remember the name of Esoteric Ebb, an isometric roleplaying game from Swedish designer Christoffer Bodegard. Ben also recommended The Excavation of Hobb’s Barrow, The Drifter, Tangle Tower, the Golden Idol games, and the Frog Detective trilogy. Leena recommended Inkle’s Overboard. Our next episode after Discworld Noir, in August, will discuss Marc Burrows’ 2020 biography, The Magic of Terry Pratchett. Send us questions using the hashtag #Pratchat95 on social media, or via email to [email protected]. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Storyteller and librarian Roslyn Quin joins Liz and Ben to discover there’s nowt as queer as folklore, as we discuss Terry Pratchett’s 2008 (and 2009 and 2014) collaboration with folklorist Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld. Wherever there are folk, you’ll find folklore: the stories, traditions, superstitions and more that tell people who they are, and make up their world. The curious thing is, the folklore of a flat world swimming through space on the back of a giant turtle turns out to have a considerable amount in common with that of a round world orbiting a star… The Folklore of Discworld is part a greatest hits collection of Terry’s imagination, and part a summary of the Roundworld lore that inspired or at least resembles its Discworld counterparts. Like The Science of Discworld books it’s a collaboration with an expert in the field – in this case, Dr Jacqueline Simpson of the Folklore Society. Unlike those books, however, there’s no neat division into fiction and non-fiction chapters, with the whole thing written in one voice. It both assumes a fair amount of interest in the Discworld, but also repeats lots of lore about creatures, people and places that fans will probably know, so it’s the discussion and the comparison to Roundworld – and especially British – folklore that makes it shine. What are your favourite bits of folklore here, whether from the Disc or from Roundworld? Do you feel like this has Pratchett’s voice, or is it mostly Simpson’s? Was there enough detail, or were you yearning for more? Which of the versions did you read? And what folklore would you love to see included if it was ever revised again? Join our online conversation via email or by incanting the magic phrase #Pratchat93 on the social media platform of your choice (assuming it’s one where we are). Guest Roslyn Quin (she/they) is a storyteller, librarian, puppeteer, actor, clown and artist who began her performance career with the 2012 solo storytelling show The Red Bird and Death. Since then she’s performed as part of festivals, cabaret and burlesque nights, on podcasts (including the hit Australian audio comedy Love and Luck), and wherever two or more are gathered together and ready to hear a tale. These days you’ll mostly find Ros telling stories to children of all ages at Yarra Plenty Regional Libraries. As mentioned in the episode, she’ll also be telling stories at 6, 7 and 8 PM on Friday 3 July for Melbourne’s free Firelight Festival at Docklands Park! You can also find out more about Ros at roslynquin.com. You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month it’s back to the pixels one more time, as we try and solve three missing persons cases at once in Perfect Entertainment’s third and final Discworld adventure game, Discworld Noir! Send us your questions via email ([email protected]), use the hashtag #Pratchat94 on social media, or just turn up at our office acting mysterious. That always works. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Another brief announcement from Ben that our Folklore of Discworld episode has been delayed for a third month! We’re very sorry about this. Hopefully we’ll be back on track soon; watch this space. Ben mentioned the following active Discworld podcasts you could try out: DiscWorld Order, who most recently discsused The Fifth Elephant Dining Table Discworld, whose most recent book was also The Fifth Elephant, but also did an episode about the Wyrd Sisters animated series I’ve Never Read Discworld, who most recently discussed Monstrous Regiment Disc Coverers, currently closest to the end, with an episode about Making Money in February The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret, whose most recent two-part discussion was about Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast The Guild of Recappers & Podcasters wiki tries to catalogue all of these and more. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Liz and Ben were once again fortunate to be guests of the Australian Discworld Convention – this time in Sydney! In this live recording from day two of Nullus Anxietas X: A Celebration of Witches, we discuss Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent’s 2023 book, Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch. (We previously interviewed Rhianna and Gabrielle about it in Pratchat74, “Hogswitch”.) Tiffany Aching has been a witch for some years now, and has been writing down what she’s learned. When she gets the opportunity to publish her work, and hopefully inspire a new generation of witches, she sends the manuscript to her mentors to get their thoughts via notes in the margins. And a couple of uninvited guests give their opinions, too – on everything from proper headwear, to the relationships between witches, and the supernatural threats one is likely to face… Which new bits were your favourites from the book? What did you think Petunia’s “pig trick” was when you first read about it in A Hat Full of Sky? Do you have a favourite witch, and why is it Nanny Ogg? (We won’t tell Granny.) Are you a Dolly Sisters fan, or a Dimwell diehard? (The reason this is important will become apparent when you listen.) What do you wish we’d do on the podcast before we finish up with all the novels – or perhaps do next, when Pratchat is over? We’d love to know! Use the hashtag #PratchatNAX on social media to join the conversation, or email us at [email protected] (we do read them all, though we’ve been a bit slow to reply of late). Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld Convention, has been running for nearly twenty years. The next convention will be in 2028 in Melbourne! You can find out more at the official convention website, ausdwcon.org. You can also follow Nullus Anxietas on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. You can find the full show notes and errata for this episode on our web site. Huge thanks to everyone who attended the convention; our wonderful live audience, especially Danny, Helen and Jeremy; and especially offer enormous thanks to the “big jobs” – the team of hard-working volunteers and committee members who make Nullus Anxietas happen, especially Joanne, Steve, Danny and Kurt – but there were so many others. We hope to see you all in Melbourne for the next one. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

A brief announcement from Ben that our Folklore of Discworld episode has been delayed another month – but we’ll get you our live episode from the Australian Discworld Convention ASAP, later this month! Our interview with Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent about Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch can be found in #Pratchat74, “Hogswitch”, from January 2024. While we’re a bit quiet, why not check out some of the other Pratchett podcasts catalogued in The Guild of Recappers & Podcasters? (Most of the big podcasts should be up to date – let us know if we’ve missed anything, or contact Ben to ask about joining the project!) Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Our March episode has been delayed. To mark International Women’s Day 2026, here’s a bonus episode in which Ben passes on recommendations of women to read if you like Terry Pratchett – mostly from listeners like you! You can find all the authors and podcasts mentioned in this episode below. The official home of International Women’s Day is unwomen.org – don’t let Google etc tell you otherwise. (00:02:41) The Grab Bag – authors recommended by one listener, in alphabetical order Charlie Jane Anders Margaret Atwood Lauren Buekes Kaliane Bradley Lois McMaster Bujold Stephanie Burgis C. J. Cherryh Robin Hobb India Holton Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Eleanor Janega N. K. Jemisin Karen Joy Fowler Tanith Lee R. A. MacAvoy C. L. Moore Audrey Niffenegger Andre Norton Rebecca Roanhorse Kristine Kathryn Rusch K. B. Spangler J. A. Stevens Sue Townsend Catherine Webb (00:20:05) Liz’s Picks in no particular order – and note you can also read Liz’s own writing! Agatha Christie (we’ll try and find the previous episode Ben mentions with the Christie recommendation, though it might be a bonus subscriber-only episode) Shirley Jackson Diana Wynne Jones (00:23:32) Pratchat Guests – also in alphabetical order Stephanie Convery (#Pratchat2, #Pratchat42, #Pratchat80) Claire G. Coleman (#Pratchat25) Karen K Carlisle (#Pratchat79) Kat Clay (#Pratchat92) Dr Kat Day (#Pratchat59) Freya Daly Sadgrove (#Pratchat76) Amy Gray (#Pratchat15) Amie Kaufman (#Pratchat9, #Pratchat66) Gabrielle Kent (#Pratchat74) – Ben forgot to include Gabrielle! Dr Laura Jean McKay (#Pratchat81) Marlee Jane Ward (#Pratchat13) Dr Tansy Rayner Roberts (#PratchatNA7, #Pratchat79, #Pratchat83) Rhianna Pratchett (#Pratchat74) Lili Wilkinson (#Pratchat20) Cal Wilson (#Pratchat1, #Pratchat3, #Pratchat50) (00:25:32) Ben’s Picks – ones also recommended by listeners first Naomi Novik Susannah Clarke C. M. Waggoner Tamsyn Muir (00:31:25) The Big Ones – authors recommended by multiple listeners, in ascending order of how many recommendations we got for them Emily Tesh Anne McCaffery Arkady Martine Jessica Townsend Mary Robinette Kowal Theodora Goss Ursula Le Guin Becky Chambers Seanan Maguire Martha Wells T. Kingfisher (00:44:38) Other Book Podcasts as sources of further recommendations PseudoPod (and, though Ben didn’t mention them, its Escape Artists stablemates: Escape Pod for sci-fi; PodCastle for fantasy; and Cast of Wonders for YA speculative fiction) Fiction Fans Trash or Treasure The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret (and Joanna Hagan’s own books) What Would Danbury Do? We’ll be back in April with #Pratchat93, our episode about The Folklore of Discworld – get your questions in now if you haven’t already! Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Writer and game designer Kat Clay joins Liz and Ben to point and click on Rincewind once more, as we discuss the 1996 graphic adventure game Discworld II: Missing, Presumed…!? from Perfect Entertainment. When the wizard Windle Poons dies, no-one comes to collect his soul – and this isn’t the first time Death has been derelict in his duty. Something must be done, and the Archchancellor knows just the man for the job: so-called wizard and veteran videogame protagonist, Rincewind! Can he – that is to say, you – navigate an ever more fiendish chain of elaborate tasks to summon Death, and persuade him to go back to work? Or will the Disc be doomed to immortality? The first Discworld point-and-click graphic adventure, released in 1995, was a hit. So of course Perfect Entertainment – the merged form of Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions – returned just one year later with a sequel. While not quite as well known as the original, Discworld II: Missing, Presumed…!? (or Discworld II: Mortality Bytes in the US) once again features Eric Idle as Rincewind, a cast of thousands (voiced by three), and a plot constructed from bits of Discworld novels (mostly Reaper Man and Mort). It also features an original song written and performed by Idle, a brand new visual style, and more fourth wall breaks than you can shake a Suffrajester at. The team, headed by Angela Sutherland and Gregg Barnett, would go on to produce one more Discworld game: Discworld Noir, a brand new story with an original protagonist. But like its stablemates, Discworld 2 is currently out of publication. Have you played Discworld 2? Did you find it easier than the first one? Was it written with an awareness that women play videogames? Do you prefer the cel-animation look of this game, or the cartoony pixels of the first one? Does it feel more like the Discworld, or a spin-off from Monty Python? And for subscribers especially, would you like to watch Ben stream these games and play along? Join our online conversation by using your fingers with the social media platform, and then clicking on the hashtag #Pratchat92. Guest Kat Clay (she/her) is a writer of fiction and tabletop roleplaying games from Melbourne, Australia. Her writing is mostly horror, and has included short stories, game reviews, novellas and hopefully an upcoming full-length novel. Kat won a Silver ENNIE award for her Call of Cthulhu adventure, The Well of All Fear, and her recent modern-day Cthulhu adventure, Resort, won Best Scenario at the 2025 Australian Industry Roleplaying Awards. You can find out more about Kat, and read some of her work, at katclay.com. You can also find her on social media, including Bluesky as @katclay.com, and buy her adventures via DriveThruRPG – where they’re all bestsellers! You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month we’re getting schooled in legends and lore via Pratchett’s collaboration with Jacqueline Simpson, The Folklore of Discworld! We’ll be looking at the third edition, which references all the novels up to Raising Steam. Send us your questions via email ([email protected]), or send us a magpie via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat93. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Liz and Ben do a little light Summer reading as they tackle one of the biggest Discworld books of all – Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs’ The Discworld Companion, in all its various editions (but mostly 2021’s The Ultimate Discworld Companion). From the Abbott of the History Monks, to dimensionally-displaced traveller Jack Zweiblumen, the Discworld Companion is an alphabetical encyclopaedia of everything Discworld! Flip to your favourite character, location or thing from across the Disc, and rediscover what made you fall in love with this world all over again. After Stephen Briggs started adapted the Discworld novels for the stage, he started to make notes about how the pieces of this fictional world fit together. He started by suggesting it would be possible to draw a map of Ankh-Morpork, and then advanced to trying to encompass the whole of the world in a single reference work. That was in the 1990s, at the height of Discworld’s fame and success – and before the world wide web was on everyone’s desk (or in everyone’s pocket). But there have been four major editions (and multiple other revisions) of The Discworld Companion since then, each bigger than the last – and the Dunmanifestin expanded edition of The Ultimate Discworld Companion is probably the biggest Discworld book of all time! Do you have a copy of the Companion? Which edition is it? How do you read it, and what are your favourite entries? What would you compile an encyclopaedia about, and what would you put into the Discworld Companion if you got the chance? And do you know where Mr Harris and the Blue Cat Club come from – if they come from anywhere? Let us know your answers via social media (optionally using the hashtag #Pratchat91), send us an email, or comment on our website to join the conversation! You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Next month it’s back to the digital Discworld, as we play and discuss the second Discworld adventure game, Discworld II: Missing, Presumed…!? (aka Discworld II: Mortality Bytes.) Send us any questions you have via email ([email protected]) or social media, optionally using the hashtag #Pratchat92. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Psychologist Craig Hildebrand-Burke rejoins Liz and Ben as we don our flat caps and anoraks, as we make sense of Terry Pratchett’s penultimate Discworld novel, 2013’s Raising Steam. Dick Simnel has created Iron Girder, the Disc’s first steam engine – and he’s brought it to Ankh-Morpork seeking an investor. He finds one in Sir Harry King, who is keen to be known as the King of something other than what brought him his wealth. As excitement and interest in the “steam engines” starts to build, Lord Vetinari sees its potential – but only if someone oversees this new enterprise on behalf of the city. That someone is, of course, Moist von Lipwig, who is in need of a new way to live dangerously. And dangerous it will be, since the conservative dwarf grags are once again moving against their progressive King. They’re attacking anything too new to be traditionally dwarfish – which means modern dwarfs, clacks towers, goblins with jobs…and the steam train… Terry Pratchett clearly had a love of steam engines – he particularly requested a steam roller be the thing to destroy his unfinished works after his death. This at least partly explains why – instead of the announced Raising Taxes – the next Moist von Lipwig book would see him helping to bring the Discworld into the age of steam. Written in 2012 and 2013, as Pratchett’s illness started to worsen, it had a troubled journey into existence, with Rob Wilkins writing in the official biography that ‘the real triumph of Raising Steam was that it existed at all.’ But while it might lack the sharpness of plot and theme and structure that mark Pratchett’s best work, there are still plenty of great jokes, characters, observations and ideas in Raising Steam – especially for the Discworld fan who’s also a bit of a gunzel (that’s Fourecksian for “train spotter”). Have you read Raising Steam? How do you rate it, compared to the previous novels in the series? How many words did you have to look up? What were your favourite allusions to the history of steam, and to railway fiction, that we didn’t mention? Get aboard the comment train by using the hashtag #Pratchat90 on social media, or comment on our website, to join the conversation! Guest Craig Hildebrand-Burke (he/him) is an educational and development psychologist who last joined us way back in January 2020 for #Pratchat27, “Leshp Miserablés”, to talk about Jingo. He specialises in working with neurodivergent children and young people and their families, as well as d/Deaf and hard of hearing children and families. We can’t advertise his actual practice, but you can find him on Instagram as @craighbpsychologist. (There are only a few posts in the grid, but he shares a lot of great stuff as reels!) You can find episode notes and errata on our web site. Now we’re nearly at the end of the Discworld, it’s time to make sense of it all – so next month, we’ll be sifting through the A-Z of the series, The Discworld Companion! (We’ll be using The Ultimate Discworld Companion as the default, but any version you have should do!) Send us any questions you have about this encyclopaedia-like tome via email ([email protected]), or send a clacks over your social network of choice using the hashtag #Pratchat91. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

A cult of malcontents have summoned a dragon in Ankh-Morpork to topple the Patrician! And of course the only one who can save the city is...Rincewind? It’s a familiar story with a new twist as games journalist and PC Gamer editor Jody Macgregor joins Liz and Ben to talk about the 1995 point and click adventure game Discworld, as shouted at by Terry Pratchett!

We’re discussing one fewer book with one fewer host than originally planned this month, but it’s all turned out pretty well as goblin-loving illustrator, educator and game designer Brendan Barnett joins Ben to discuss all the weird, weird creatures of Paul Kidby’s 2024 book, Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. (And don’t worry - Liz will be back next month!)

No episode this month, and a sad farewell to a beloved Pratcat.

Our August episode has been delayed! In this bonus bit of Pratchat to fill the gap, Ben takes us for a quick look at the stuff on his Pratchett shelves which probably won't make it into another episode.

The Patrician is missing! So of course Liz, Ben and guest Richard McKenzie have to go head-to-head for control of the biggest (and grossest) city on the Disc… Join us as we complete our collection of Discworld board games by discussing Martin Wallace’s 2011 design, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork.

Liz, Ben and guest Pratchett scholar Freyja Stokes head downriver to the Shires for an adventure featuring Vimeses, goblins, murderers, double meanings and one Wonderful Fanny. Join us as we discuss Terry Pratchett’s last Watch-focused Discworld novel, 2011’s Snuff.