The 2018 Discworld Convention Survey

Welcome to the 2018 Convention report, inevitably shorter than in the past, but it will be a half century for me… The Convention will start almost exactly fifty years after Terry first brought along the typescript of The Carpet People to my home in Gerrards Cross. A nice anniversary, and while I do not know the exact day, it must have been in late August. Terry had first visited Colin Smythe Ltd in the first week of May 1968, and it must have been in August 1968 that Terry first brought a draft of the book to show us. The contract was signed on 7 January 1969 and later that year we saw Terry’s revised version and we then sent it off to our printers to get an estimate for printing and binding. The Frankfurt Book Fair was taking place on 19-24 September 1969, and by that time, I had four binder’s dummies containing a few pages of the first chapter set in type, each with hand-coloured covers and some interior illustrations by Terry. I displayed them on our stand, where they got a lot of interest – one was carried off by a light-fingered visitor – and the first sale of rights was to the German publishing firm Sauerländer, who published it in 1972. Terry got to work on illustrations for the book, which was finally published in November 1971, with a launch party in the Carpet Department of Heal’s Store in Tottenham Court Road, London, where the menu included Stewed Snarg with Master Mushrooms, Fried Tromp and Green Glebe Salad, Smoked Weft-borer and Purple Groad, Chrystobella Cheese, and Sugar Crystal Cake, and we drank Essence of Underlay. Memories…..

On to more recent ones. The last international convention took place here at the Chesford Grange Hotel from 26-29 August 2016, the day before which Doubleday had published The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner and other stories. On 1 September the Folio Society published its edition of Small Gods, illustrated by Omar Rayyan and on the 4th it was announced that DragonCon’s 2016 Dragon Award for Best Young Adult/Middle Grade Novel had gone to The Shepherd’s Crown. On 13 October Gollancz published the perpetual Terry Pratchett Diary, for 2017 (and every subsequent year as it omitted weekdays). It had an introduction by Rhianna Pratchett, a postscript by Rob Wilkins and contributions by a number of Terry’s close associates. Later that month Doubleday published hardcover editions of The Last Continent, Carpe Jugulum, The Fifth Elephant and The Truth, continuing the Discworld Collectors Library with covers by Joe McLaren which had been started by Gollancz.
In November Gollancz published the deluxe artist’s edition of Paul Kidby’s Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Colouring Book.
The first publishing event in 2017 (on the 3rd January) was the American edition of The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner, which appeared in the New York Times Young Adult hardback and e-book bestseller lists. On the 17th, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP), based in Seattle, Washington, announced its 2016 inductees to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame: Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams (with films Star Trek and Blade Runner).
On 11 February, BBC2 broadcast Charlie Russell’s documentary Terry Pratchett: Back in Black (which in May 2018 won the Royal Television Society Scotland’s 2018 Documentary & Specialist Factual: Arts Award).
On 7 March Rhianna unveiled a commemorative plaque to Terry at the Beaconsfield Public Library. While he had been born in the town and spent his early life in Forty Green nearby, it was felt that the only suitable place for a plaque was the Library, where he had spent so many hours as an assistant librarian as well as taking masses of books to read at home – having amassed a collection of something like 30 borrowers tickets. His Who’s Who entry listed the Library as where he was educated.
In April and May Doubleday published new hardcover editions of the Tiffany Aching series, with fine Kidby jackets and endpapers by Paul illustrating the Chalk, followed in June by the Corgi paperback of The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner.
On what would have been Terry’s 69th Birthday, Birdworld in Farnham, Surrey, opened a new feature in collaboration with the World Owl Trust, the Terry Pratchett Owl Parliament, with a fascinating collection of strigiformes to delight visitors, from snowy to long-eared owls, with many fans attending, led by Rob Wilkins and Stephen Briggs, taking part in an auction and raffle which raised £1,400 for the Great Bustard Group (and its first anniversary was celebrated there on 26 May 2018).
Summer was convention season, the German convention took place at in Burg Ludwigstein, Witzenhausen in May; Cabbagecon 4 in July at The Hotel Carlton President in Utrecht; Nullus Anxietas VI (‘The Discworld Grand Tour’) at the Lakes Resort Hotel, West Lakes, Adelaide, South Australia, at the beginning of August; the fourth North American Discworld Convention – ‘The Genuan Experience’ – in New Orleans at the beginning of September, when it was sandwiched between Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, leaving NOLA with very pleasant weather, both weather systems having missed it (though lightning did hit the Sheraton a floor above where I was sleeping ¬– quite a wake-up call!). The Irish Discworld Convention returned to the Cork International Hotel the beginning of October to the delight of the attendees, it being the ideal venue to hold the 300 conventioneers, five minutes’ walk from the Airport and with the city within easy driving distance. The 2019 convention will also take place there.
In mid September the Salisbury Museum presented ‘Terry Pratchett – HisWorld’ a comprehensive exhibition relating to his life and work. On display was a mass of Terry’s artwork from the time of The Carpet People and The Dark Side of the Sun, his gold bees, some work by Josh Kirby and a mass of Paul Kidby’s illustrations, with a reconstruction of Terry’s office, the ‘Chapel’, as he called it, with his desk, computer screens, lectern and The Luggage. This has been the Museum’s most successful exhibition ever, with over 21,000 visitors passing through by the time it closed on 14 January, a day later than announced, and on 16 May it won the 2018 Museums & Heritage Award for a Temporary Exhibition. A book in similar style to that given out to attendees of the 2014 Convention in Manchester (in green cloth), and the Memorial volume (in black cloth) presented to those attending the Barbican Theatre on 14 April 2016 was available for visitors to the exhibition, bound in blue cloth, with profits going to one of Terry’s favourite Alzheimer’s charities, R.I.C.E., which benefitted to the tune of over £20,000.
On 5 October Doubleday published a collection of Terry’s Christmas themed short stories, entitled Father Christmas’s Fake Beard, which was a available as a standard edition with black and white illustrations by Mark Beech, with a deluxe slip-case edition in full colour throughout, being released the following month. Later in the month Doubleday published the next four volumes the Discworld Collectors Library, with McLaren covers, Thief of Time, Night Watch, Monstrous Regiment, and Going Postal.
On 23 November Gollancz published Paul Kidby’s Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Imaginarium, a massive volume chock full of Paul’s Discworld illustrations, many not previously published, produced in three versions, standard and deluxe editions by Gollancz, and an ultra deluxe edition in a very superior cloth box, limited to 1,250 signed copies and two prints, published by Terry’s successor company, Dunmanifestin Ltd.
On 22 February 2018 Corgi published a new edition of Only You Can Save Mankind, illustrated by Mark Beech, which was followed by Johnny and the Dead on 17 May. Johnny and the Bomb will be published in August, as far as I know. On 28 April Corgi released The Amazing Maurice & His Educated Rodents with a new cover by Laura Ellen Anderson – a delight.
I’m putting the finishing touches to this record on 21 May, which is the day recording has started on the multi-cast audio production of Unseen Academicals for Audible , which will be released on 2 July. It is directed by Dirk Maggs (whose Good Omens was so successful), with Josie Lawrence as Glenda, and other actors including Matthew Horne, Tony Gardner and Phil Davis.
A full-size recreation of Evil Harry Dread’s first lair, and Terry’s office, recreated from illustrations by Paul Kidby and the Salisbury Museum Exhibition for the Chalke Valley History Festival (25 June–1 July), took place in Terry’s home village, Broad Chalke, with Rob Wilkins talking on ‘The Write Fantastic’ on the 30th.
The BBC/Amazon production of Good Omens wrapped in South Africa on 9 March. Official news is intentionally sparse and is only released as and when their publicity departments choose to do so. We can but wait till early 2019 to see it on Prime and then on terrestrial BBC later in the year.
In case you missed the news, Snowgum Films has completed its marathon task: Troll Bridge is finished. It’s fifteen years since Daniel Knight and his friends began location scouting – he’d first written to me proposing the fanfilm on 14 March 2002.
Publication events taking place around this time include the 2019 Discworld Quiz Diary appearing on 9 August, and the 2019 Discworld Imaginarium Calendar, published on 23 August (both from Gollancz) will contain a number of the pictures from the book.
On 1 October Dunmanifestin will publish (via www.Discworld.com) Terry Pratchett – Official Exhibition Companion, a beautiful volume (in standard and limited deluxe formats) which has a mass of reproductions of the original artwork and artefacts on display at the Salisbury Museum as well as articles by people associated with Terry’s life and work. This will be an excellent reminder of the exhibition for the 21,000 people who visited it, and a welcome volume for those who were not able to get to Salisbury to see it.
The next three McLaren design covered adult Discworld novels – Unseen Academicals, Making Money and Thud! – will appear in November, but as yet no date has been fixed. Firm dates have been fixed, however, for the première of Stephen Briggs’ adaptation of Hogfather at the Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon, performed by the Studio Theatre Club – the 14th to 17th November.

Thanks go to the editors of Discworld Monthly (Jason and Rachel Anthony-Rowlands, and colleagues) and Wossname (Annie Mac and supporters) for constantly keeping us abreast (and ahead) of publication news, and events. For those of you who have not subscribed and would like to, the links are oook@discworldmonthly.co.uk and wossname@pearwood.info.
Sources for any Discworld material you may wish to acquire are www.Discworld.com and the Discworld Emporium (in Wincanton) www.discworldemporium.com – and my own https://colinsmythe.co.uk will provide you with nearly a hundred pages giving details of all his books and much else. That’s about it for this year.

Background image © Josh Kirby Estate, All Rights Reserved