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Francine Carrel

#PratchatRuby – How Did Discworld Get to 40?

24 November 2023 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

24 November 2023 marks forty years since Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic was first published. That’s right – it’s Discworld’s fortieth birthday! To celebrate, join Pratchat producer and co-host Ben McKenzie as he – and a bunch of special guests – try to figure out why that book, and moreso the Discworld series it started, have endured for so long.

This episode is something of an experiment for Pratchat, and as Ben says during the episode, this can’t possibly cover all the reasons why the series is so beloved. We want to hear about your favourite Discworld books, and what the Discworld means to you. And we’d love to know what you thought of this episode, and whether you’d like to hear more like it in the future! Tell us via the hashtag #PratchatRuby on social media, or get in touch via email or our subscriber Discord.

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_bonus_episode_Ruby.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:52 — 19.8MB)

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Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this episode:

  • Rachel and Jason of the newsletter Better Than a Poke in the Eye (previously known as Discworld Monthly). You can read their thoughts on the fortieth anniversary here: “Celebrating 40 years of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic”.
  • Marc Burrows, author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett and creator of the one-man stage show of the same name. Marc is also the guest host for the final episode of Desert Island Discworld, also released on the fortieth anniversary. (Note that it’s about The Shepherd’s Crown.)
  • Adam Ford, poet. Find his zines in his Gumroad shop.
  • Danny (aka Molokov) from Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld Convention. The next one is in Adelaide in July 2024. Hopefully we’ll be there!
  • Ian Banks.
  • Aaron from The Compleat Discography podcast.
  • Pratchat’s own Elizabeth Flux.
  • Francine Carrel and Joanna Hagan of The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret. We appeared on their recent episode “Picture Books and Board Games” talking about Where’s My Cow? and the Discworld board games; it also includes an interview with David Brashaw of Backspindle Games.

Our original discussion of The Colour of Magic can be found in #Pratchat14, “City-State Lampoon’s Disc-Wide Vacation”, from December 2018.

Our December episode will be #Pratchat73, discussing the stories of Father Christmas’s Fake Beard. But we are hoping to bring you one more little extra before the year is out.

Want to help us get to every Pratchett book? You can subscribe for as little as $2 a month – and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! (Sorry.) Check out our Support Us page for details.

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.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Aaron Olson, Adam Ford, Ben McKenzie, Better Than a Poke in the Eye, Bonus Episode, Danny Sag, Discworld, Elizabeth Flux, Francine Carrel, Ian Banks, Joanna Hagan, Marc Burrows, Nullus Anxietas, The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret

#Pratchat62 – There’s a Cow in There

8 December 2022 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

In this very special episode, Liz and Ben are joined by fellow Discworld podcasters Joanna Hagan and Francine Carrel on an existential journey deep into our very souls! Yes, it’s part three of our Thud!-related trilogy, in which we discuss Where’s My Cow?

Every night at six o’clock, Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, reads the picture book Where’s My Cow? to his one-year-old son, Young Sam. But tonight, in between doing the barnyard noises, Vimes starts to question whether this is really the right story for a child of Ankh-Morpork.

Released at the same time as Thud!, Where’s My Cow? is a picture book based on a novel inspired by a board game. Lavishly illustrated by newcomer to the Discworld Melvyn Grant, it takes the couple of pages explaining the book – and the “Vimes street version” – and brings them vividly to life, along with wonderful new visions of some of our favourite Discworld characters. But is Young Sam cute, or in the uncanny valley? What’s the deal with that flying book? What do you think the Discworld’s answer to duct tape would be? Are are you, in some way, looking for your cow? Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat62.

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_62.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:38:43 — 45.6MB)

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Guests Joanna Hagan (chef, poet, playwright, author) and Francine Carrel (writer, editor) are the hosts of the Discworld podcast The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret, which is about to reach its 100th episode! Their format splits each novel up into three weekly episodes per month, and they’re going through the Discworld books in mostly publication order, with side trips to Pratchett’s non-Discworld work along the way. Find them wherever good podcasts are available, but also at their website, thetruthshallmakeyefret.com, and on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, TikTok and probably something else by the time you read this. If you like what they do, please consider supporting them on Patreon.

You’ll find notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

As mentioned above and at the end of the episode, we’ve decided to cut ourselves some slack in the new year by extending the “Thud! trilogy” to four parts. In January we’ll be welcoming back Matt Roden to discuss the Discworld short story “A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices“, featuring A. E. Pessimal and available in A Blink of the Screen. We’ll also tackle some more of your brilliant Thud! questions! If you have questions about the short story, send them via social media with the hashtag #Pratchat63 or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Finally, if you want to catch The Amazing Maurice before the rest of the Australia, and you’re in Adelaide, the Australian Discworld Convention’s fundraiser screening is on Saturday, the 10th of December, at 3 PM at the Palace Nova Prospect. Get details and book your tickets here! (We won’t be there, but do tell us if you go!)

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.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ankh-Morpork, Ben McKenzie, CMOT Dibbler, Detritus, Dwarfs, Elizabeth Flux, Foul Ole Ron, Francine Carrel, Joanna Hagan, The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret, The Watch, Tie-in, Vetinari, Vimes, Where's My Cow?, Young Sam, Younger Readers

#Pratchat62 Notes and Errata

8 December 2022 by Ben Leave a Comment

These are the episode notes and errata for Pratchat episode 62, “There’s a Cow in There“, discussing the Discworld picture book, 2005‘s Where’s My Cow? with special guests, Joanna Hagan and Francine Carrel of The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret.

Iconographic Evidence

  • We’re sourcing a good video of a hippo – watch this space!
  • We might also add some partial images from the book; we apologise this episode was so visual!

Notes and Errata

  • The episode title refers to the theme song of the Australian version of Play School, a children’s educational and entertainment programme produced by the ABC since July 1966. The first line of the song is “There’s a bear in there”, referring to one of the two staple toys from the show, Little Ted or Big Ted. (See below for more about them.)
  • The other children’s book to make its way from Discworld to Roundworld is another favourite of Young Sam’s: Miss Felicity Beadle’s The World of Poo. It appears in Snuff, and was published alongside the Corgi paperback edition of the novel. We’ll cover it when we get to Snuff, but it stays much more in-universe than Where’s My Cow?
  • The rock song that might have inspired Detritus’ line in the book is actually the poetic opening to the Moody Blues’ 1969 album On The Threshold of a Dream. The first words heard are: “I am, I think I am. Therefore I must be. (pause, then uncertainly) I think…”
  • Ben likens the Sams’ flying chair to the music video for the UK’s 2022 Eurovision song; specifically that’s Sam Ryder’s “Space Man”.
  • Blackboard is one of the puppet characters from the long-running Australian children’s program Mr Squiggle; we previously referred to him in #Pratchat55, “Mr Doodle, the Man on the Moon“.
  • The Abominable Snow Baby is a 2021 animated adaptation of Pratchett’s early short story of the same name, produced for Channel 4. It was narrated by David Harewood, and starred Hugh Dancy as Albert, and Julie Walters as his Granny; the picture of Terry Pratchett appears in Albert’s flat, though it’s not clear if he’s meant to be Albert’s grandad or not.
  • The children’s book about death mentioned by Liz is Duck, Death and the Tulip by German children’s author and illustrator Wolf Erlbruch, first published in English in 2011.
  • You can find Terry’s official answers about the cow on the L-Space web.
  • The Amazing Maurice opens in Australian cinemas on 12 January 2023, but if you’ve looked this up very soon after our episode was published, you can get tickets for the 10 December preview screening in Adelaide from the Australian Discworld Convention. Head to ausdwcon.org/amazing for tickets and more info!

More notes coming soon!

Thanks for reading our notes! If we missed anything, or you have questions, please let us know.

Posted in: Episode Notes Tagged: Ankh-Morpork, Ben McKenzie, CMOT Dibbler, Detritus, Dwarfs, Elizabeth Flux, Foul Ole Ron, Francine Carrel, Joanna Hagan, The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret, The Watch, Tie-in, Vetinari, Vimes, Where's My Cow?, Young Sam, Younger Readers

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#Pratchat84 - Ankh-Morpork Archives & Discworld Almanak8 April 2025
Listen to us discuss the in-universe Discworld books The Ankh-Morpork Archives volume I and II, collecting the Discworld diaries, and The Discworld Almanak. Join the discussion using the hashtag #Pratchat84.

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