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Book:Going Postal
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| Going Postal | |
| |
| Cover | [[Image:|thumb|center|200px|{{{1}}}]] |
| Published | 25 Sep 2004 |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| ISBN | 0385603428 |
| Pages | 329 |
| Series | Ankh-Morpork Books |
| Main characters | Moist von Lipwig, Adora Belle Dearheart, Reacher Gilt |
| Annotations | Annotations for Going Postal |
| Notes | Adapted as a TV film in 2010 |
| All data relates to the UK hardback edition. | |
Contents |
[edit] Blurb
Moist von Lipwig is a con artist and a fraud and a man faced with a life choice: be hanged, or put Ankh-Morpork's ailing postal service back on its feet.
It's a tough decision.
But he's got to see that the mail gets through, come rain, hail, sleet, dogs, the Post Office Workers Friendly and Benevolent Society, the evil chairman of the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, and a midnight killer.
Getting a date with Adora Belle Dearheart would be nice, too.
Maybe it'll take a criminal to succeed where honest men have failed, or maybe it's a death sentence either way.
Or perhaps there's a shot at redemption in the mad world of the mail, waiting for a man who's prepared to push the envelope...
[edit] Plot
Moist von Lipwig is a travelling fraudster who is finally arrested in Ankh-Morpork under the name of Albert Spangler. However, the hangman fakes his execution and Moist wakes up in the care of the Patrician. Vetinari offers Moist a job as the new Postmaster General, or he can walk out the door "and never hear from me again". Since walking out the door will result in death via a cunningly disguised lack of floor in the corridor, Moist accepts the job. Once outside he immediately flees the city, but is apprehended in Hapley by his new parole officer, a golem called Mr. Pump.
Moist begins work at the Post Office, once a thriving business that collapsed, leaving the building as a decaying shell full of piles of undelivered letters. Only two staff remain: Tolliver Groat, an aged "Junior" Post Officer, and his assistant Stanley Howler. It turns out that in recent months, Vetinari has tried to revive the business but four Postmasters died in mysterious accidents.
Vetinari meets the Grand Trunk Semaphore Company, led by Reacher Gilt, who have taken full control of the Clacks. The Patrician has noticed that the quality of the communications has deteriorated ever since they bought the Clacks network, but he fails to impact on Gilt. Meanwhile, Moist discovers that two of his predecessors died because they hallucinated in the past and fell through non-existent floor, while another died of fright. Moist falls into a huge pile of letters and almost suffocates to death, but he is rescued by Mr Pump.
Moist begins by rehiring some of the old postmen, who initiate him by forcing him to do a treacherous blindfolded "Postman's Walk". To prove himself worthy of leadership, they additionally set several Lipwigzer Dogs on him, but Moist knows how to control them. Groat then shows Moist the mail-sorting machine, a time/space-warping (and now wrecked) creation of Bloody Stupid Johnson which was partly responsible for the collapse of the old Post Office, and later for the death of a Postmaster. While hiring new postmen he falls in love with Adora Belle Dearheart, the chain-smoking golem-rights activist. Her father, Robert Dearheart invented the Clacks system but it was stolen from him by Gilt using financial trickery. Her brother, John Dearheart, organised a rival New Trunk but he died mysteriously in the prologue of the book.
Moist also invents paper stamps for use by the Post Office, hires golems as postmen, organises delivering some of the undelivered mail and brings the Post Office in competition with the Clacks. His interview in the Ankh-Morpork Times coincides neatly with yet another breakdown of the Clacks, giving the Post Office public attention as he delivers mail to Sto Lat. Gilt sends his private assassin, a banshee named Mr Gryle, to murder the Postmaster and burn down the building. As Moist has gone out on a date and left Groat in charge, the banshee mistakenly attacks Groat, only to be repelled by Stanley.
The banshee only succeeds in setting the Post Office on fire. After he returns to the burning building, Moist enters the building to rescue Tiddles the cat, and confronts Mr Gryle by the sorting machine; Gryle accidentally succeeds in getting himself liquidated by it. During his rescue, Anghammarad, a 18,000 year old messenger golem is killed by the simultaneous combination of the fire and a sudden downpour of water. Following this, Moist challenges the Grand Trunk to see who can get a message to Genua (two weeks' journey away) faster, and the Clacks are only too happy to accept it. He meets The Smoking Gnu, three friends of the late John Dearheart, who undermine the Grand Trunk by sending codes which can damage the Clacks machinery. They offer to help by sending a killer poke signal from an old wizard's tower after nightfall.
Archchancellor Ridcully gives them a book to send to Genua, and Moist offers to allow the Clacks to send part of the book while the mail coach delivers the rest. Moist travels with the mail coach for a short distance to the Wizards tower, where he meets the three clacksmen. At the last minute, Moist persuades them to send a different message. The message, which appears to have been sent by dead clacksmen, exposes all of the company's crimes to the Patrician and Ankh-Morpork. The plan succeeds, and Vetinari orders an investigation. Moist is given possession of the Clacks but he gives it back to the Dearhearts and resumes his role of Postmaster.
In the epilogue, Gilt is brought before the Patrician. Vetinari offers Gilt a similar offer to what he offered Moist, this time to reform the Ankh-Morpork Mint and banking system. Gilt declines the offer and walks out the door, where he presumably falls to his death.
[edit] Characters
- Moist von Lipwig
- Adora Belle Dearheart
- Tolliver Groat
- Stanley Howler
- Reacher Gilt
- Iodine Maccalariat
- Mr Gryle
- Sacharissa Cripslock
- Vetinari
- Daniel "One Drop" Trooper
- Albert Spangler (briefly)
- Mr. Pump
- Gladys
- Anghammarad
- Ladislav Pelc
[edit] Locations
[edit] Television
Terry Pratchett's Going Postal was the novel's adaptation into a TV film, first broadcast on 30th and 31st of May 2010 (as a two-parter) on Sky1 and Sky1 HD. Terry Pratchett made a cameo as a postman.
[edit] Cast
- Richard Coyle – Moist von Lipwig
- David Suchet – Reacher Gilt
- Charles Dance – Patrician Havelock Vetinari
- Claire Foy – Adora Belle Dearheart
- Marnix Van Den Broeke – Mr. Pump (body)
- Kerry Shale - Mr. Pump (voice)
- Steve Pemberton – Drumknott
- Andrew Sachs – Tolliver Groat
- Tamsin Greig – Sacharissa Cripslock
- Ingrid Bolsø Berdal – Angua
- Adrian Schiller – Mr Gryle
- Ian Bonar – Stanley Howler
- Madhav Sharma – Crispin Horsefry
- Timothy West – Mustrum Ridcully
- John Henshaw - Mr. Pony
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