News Archive

A place to archive news stories from the “recent news” section on the Main Page. So far we’ve added as far back as 2018, though there may be gaps.

2024

Friday, May 10th, 2024

The Terry Pratchett estate reveals that an additional “lost” story written by Terry has been found: “Arnold, the Bominable Snowman”. This story will appear in the paperback edition of A Stroke of the Pen, due out in September, but will also be published free online so those who bought the hardcover or trade paperback edition won’t miss out. Penguin Books also held a competition for fans to get their illustration of Arnold published in the book. (TerryPratchett.com; terrypratchettbooks.com)

Friday, May 3rd, 2024

The Terry Pratchett estate announces Designing Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, a behind the scenes look at Paul Kidby’s long creative partnership with Terry Pratchett as the official Discworld illustrator. It will be published on 7 November 2024 by Transworld. (TerryPratchett.com)

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2024

HarperCollins announces that new Harper Perennial paperback editions of the Discworld books are being published in the US, beginning with the “Wizards collection”. The collections will use the same Leo Nickolls covers as the UK Penguin editions, and be released in the same “collections”. Each collection will be released separately, with the Tiffany Aching books being last in Fall 2025. (harpercollins.com)

Monday, April 22nd, 2024

The Terry Pratchett estate announces a theme for "Terry Pratchett Day" (Pratchett's birthday, April 28th) for 2024: "Start in the Wrong Place". They promise more details to come, including resources for celebrating the day. (@PratchettOnline on Twitter; terrypratchett.com)

Thursday, February 29th, 2024

The Terry Pratchett estate and UK-based games company Modiphius Entertainment announce that Modiphius has acquired the license to produce new Discworld tabletop games, beginning with a roleplaying game, Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, which will be crowdfunded via Kickstarter in “late 2024”. Modiphius have launched a Discworld fan survey as part of their early development of the game. (terrypratchett.com; Dicebreaker)

Wednesday, February 28th, 2024

The Terry Pratchett Estate reveal a “Forty Years of Discworld” logo for the “Year of Discworld” celebration, previously announced on the anniversary itself (November 24th, 2023). No other details yet. (terrypratchett.com)

2023

Thursday, December 14th, 2023

After Amazon released a Good Omens song list containing a clue, Good Omens HQ officially announce that a third and final season of Good Omens has been confirmed. (Variety)

Thursday, December 14th, 2023

The Pratchett Estate announce via a cover reveal that a new edition of The Last Hero with a cover design by Leo Nickolls matching the 50 Years of Terry Penguin editions will be published on 29th February 2024, completing the set of Discworld novels in this edition. This edition will also have a “new text design”, suggesting the book will have new layout and typesetting - previously too expensive an endeavour given the way the original was created. (Gollancz website)

Friday, November 24th, 2023

In a tweet marking the fortieth anniversary of The Colour of Magic, the official Terry Pratchett Estate account announced that this would be the start of a “Year of Discworld” in celebration, promising “more on that soon...”

Tuesday, November 21st, 2023

Marking the fortieth anniversary of The Colour of Magic a little early, Rob Wilkins and Neil Gaiman celebrated the life and work of Terry Pratchett in an event at the British Library, “The Worlds of Terry Pratchett”, hosted by Kat Brown (who hosted a similar event with Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent for the launch of Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch at the start of the month). Video of the talk is available from the Living Knowledge Network. (terrypratchett.com)

Friday, July 7th, 2023

Speaking with SFX magazine, Neil Gaiman reveals that the second season of Good Omens is not based on the unwritten sequel he planned with Terry Pratchett. It is instead a new story that forms a “connective tissue” between the original and the planned sequel, which would form the basis of a third season if one is made. (SFX article)

Friday, June 30th, 2023

The Telegraph, and subsequently several other right-wing news outlets, run outraged stories about the new Penguin audiobook editions of the Discworld novels including “content warnings”. The audiobooks were published in batches since April 2022, more than a year earlier, and the “warning” in question is: “The first book in the Discworld series – The Colour of Magic – was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.” As quoted in the article, a Penguin spokesperson responded: “This is not a trigger warning, but rather a note providing some context for the listener. The author’s estate is aligned.” (If you're looking for actual content warnings for Pratchett books, try looking them up at The Storygraph.)

Thursday, June 1st, 2023

Rhianna Pratchett, Paul Kidby, Gabrielle Kent, Puffin Books and official Discworld channels all release more details of Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch, including the cover, some hints about the contents, and that it will be published in October 2023 to celebrate twenty years since the first Tiffany Aching book, The Wee Free Men. (terrypratchett.com summary; The Bookseller article)

Friday, May 12th, 2023

Rhianna Pratchett and Paul Kidby announce via social media that they are collaborating with game maker and author Gabrielle Kent on Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch, to be published through Puffin Books. Pratchett and Kent have co-written this “in-world guide to aspiring witches everywhere”, illustrated by Kidby. They shared the title and a promotional image, but no release date, promising more information soon. Kidby mentioned he had been working on it for the past year and "recently". Kent also tweeted about it, mentioning that it was the Discworld books that had made her want to be a writer. (@rhipratchett tweet; @paulkidby tweet; @GabrielleKent tweet)

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023

YouTube channel The Hillywood Show publish their elaborate Good Omens parody video, featuring members of the original television cast and Neil Gaiman himself handing over the release date of season two of the show to Crowley (played by Hilly Hindi). This was the official announcement that season two will premiere on Amazon Prime on 23 July 2023. (Good Omens Parody by The Hillywood Show on YouTube)

Monday, February 27th, 2023

The Terry Pratchett estate announces A Stroke of the Pen, a new collection of Pratchett’s early short stories for newspapers from the 1970s and 1980s, to be published in October 2023. These twenty stories were written under pseudonyms (mostly “Patrick Kearns”) and have not been previously republished. They were discovered thanks to fan Chris Lawrence, who had one of the original newspaper stories framed in his house, with the rest discovered by Pat and Jan Harkin by searching through old newspapers. Rob Wilkins described this as “nothing short of a miracle” and said this was “the last ’new’ Pratchett material we are ever likely to find.” (terrypratchett.com; BBC)

2022

Saturday, September 17th, 2022

The Guardian publishes an extract of Rob Wilkins' official biography, Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes. (‘I think I was good, though I could have been better’: Terry Pratchett and the writing of his life) Early reviews appear in The Times ("What Made the Discworld author tick?") and The Independent ("Fan’s-eye view misses the big questions").

Thursday, January 27th, 2022

The Pratchett Estate officially endorse the "Vimes Boots Index", an effort by anti-poverty and equality campaigner Jack Monroe to track the real increase in living costs for the poor in the UK. Terry Pratchett estate backs Jack Monroe’s idea for ‘Vimes Boots’ poverty index (The Guardian’')

2021

Tuesday, November 16th, 2021

Narrative announces that to celebrate "50 Years of Terry" (fifty years since the publication of his first novel, The Carpet People), Penguin Random House is to publish a new set of "all 40 audiobooks from Sir Terry Pratchett’s bestselling Discworld series, featuring a cast of leading names from British stage and screen". Each "subseries" of books will be released together, narrated by the same performer, over the next two years. Death will be read by Peter Serafinowicz across all the books, while the footnotes in every book will be read by Bill Nighy, acting as "the voice of Pratchett". A special release of Template:HF, read by Sian Clifford, will be published in December 2021. The scheduled series are the Witches narrated by Indira Varma in April 2022, the Wizards narrated by Merlin star Colin Morgan, in July 2022; the Death series, presumably narrated by Serafinowicz, in October 2022; the Moist von Lipwig books in February 2023; and both the City Watch and Tiffany Aching series in April 2023. The standalone titles – Pyramids, Small Gods, The Truth, Moving Pictures, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and Monstrous Regiment – will also be published. "Audio" at narrative.com

2020

Thursday, November 5th, 2020

Narrativia announces that Sky Cinema are co-producing the animated film The Amazing Maurice with previously announced companies Ulysses Filmproduktion and Cantilever Media. The adaptation of 'The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents' also has a confirmed its release date of 2022, and announced some key cast, including Hugh Laurie as Maurice, Emilia Clarke as Malicia Grim, David Thewlis as "Boss Man", Himesh Patel as Keith, Gemma Arterton as Peaches and Hugh Bonneville as The Mayor. More cast are set to be announced. The Amazing Maurice at narrativia.com

Friday, October 9th, 2020

As part of an online panel at New York Comic-Con, BBC America release the first teaser trailer for The Watch, as well as a few short clips. Online fan reaction was largely negative, as were comments from Rhianna Pratchett, Neil Gaiman and Stephen Briggs. YouTube playlist of trailer and clips

Friday, August 7th, 2020

AMC Networks, the broadcasting corporation who owns and operates BBC America, announce release dates for new and returning shows, including a January 2021 launch date for The Watch. BBC America release a new photo to mark the news, giving a first glimpse at Detritus the troll. AMC Networks media release (scroll down to BBC America section for The Watch) BBC America article

Tuesday, April 28th, 2020

Narrativia announces via media release an exclusive new deal with Motive Pictures and Endeavour Content to produce "definitive" and "absolutely faithful" Discworld adaptations for the screen. No details about specific productions have yet been announced. The full text of the announcement is available on the Narrativia web site.

2019

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

More cast are announced for The Watch: James Fleet as The Archchancellor, Ingrid Oliver as Dr Cruces, Ruth Madeley as Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler, and Kae-Kazim as Captain John Keel, and Bianca Simone Mannie as Wonse. BBC America article

Friday, August 30th, 2019

First casting announcements for The Watch are released, including the main cast: Richard Dormer as Sam Vimes, Adam Hugill as Carrot Ironfoundersson, Jo Eaton-Kent as Constable Cheery, Marama Corlette as Corporal Angua, Lara Rossi as Lady Sybil Ramkin and Sam Adewunmi as Carcer Dun. BBC America article

2018

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

The BBC announces they have greenlit The Watch, a "punk rock thriller" procedural crime series based on the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett.