Book:Lords and Ladies

Lords and Ladies
Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	November 1992
ISBN	0575052236
Pages	288
RRP
Main characters	Granny Weatherwax, Queen of the Elves, Mustrum Ridcully, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick
Series	Witches Series
Annotations	View
Notes	Book #14
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

It's a hot Midsummer Night. The crop circles are turning up everywhere – even on the mustard-and-cress of Pewsey Ogg, aged four. And Magrat Garlick, witch, is going to be married in the morning... Everything ought to be going like a dream. But the Lancre All-Comers Morris Team have got drunk on a fairy mound and the elves have come back, bringing all those things traditionally associated with the magical, glittering realm of Faerie: cruelty, kidnapping, malice and evil, evil murder.[*] Granny Weatherwax and her tiny argumentative coven have really got their work cut out this time... With full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris Dancers and one orang-utan. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

[*] But with tons of style.

Major Characters

• Granny Weatherwax
• Queen of the Elves
• Mustrum Ridcully
• Nanny Ogg
• Magrat Garlick
• King Verence II
• Shawn Ogg, a man of many jobs (mostly the ones no one else wants...)
• Ponder Stibbons

Minor Characters

• King of the Elves
• Lankin
• Jason Ogg
• Death
• Binky
• Pewsey Ogg, Jason's sticky 4-year-old child
• The Librarian
• The Bursar
• Millie Chillum
• Girl witches:
  • Perdita
  • Lucy Tockley (aka Diamanda)
  • Amanita DeVice
  • Muscara (real name Susan)
  • Violet Frottidge, witch name Magenta
• Lancre Morris Men, excluding Jason Ogg above
  • Bestiality Carter, Lancre's only baker
  • Weaver, the thatcher
  • Obidiah Carpenter, the tailor
  • Baker, the weaver
  • Thatcher, the carter
  • Tailor, another weaver
  • Tinker, the tinker
• Herne the Hunted, small god
• Giamo Casanunda, dwarf
• Hodgesaargh, falconer
• Mr Brooks, the royal beekeeper

Cameos and Mentions

• Dreen Ogg (mentioned)
• Mr Skindle
• Mr Spriggins, the butler (mentioned)
• Mrs Scorbic, the cook
• Boggi, Ankh-Morporkian dressmaker
• Ironfoundersson, dwarf
• Vitoller's Men, including Hwel and Tomjon (mentioned)
• Goodie Whemper (mentioned, maysherestinpeace)
• William Scrope, who dies chasing a Ramtop Red stag into the Circle
• Palliard, family to which Scrope's widow belongs
• The Dean
• The Lecturer in Recent Runes
• The Reader in Invisible Writings, title currently held by Ponder Stibbons
• Muckloe, pig breeder in Slice
• Greebo
• Mr Quarney, Lancre's only storekeeper and his wife
• Mother Peason (mentioned)
• Poorchick (mentioned)
• Bandits' Guild
• Granny Postalute (mentioned)
• Threepenny Nitt, Perdita's father
• Keeble, maiden name of Diamanda's mother, possible reference to the Keebler Elves
• Nanny Gripes, Goody Heggety, Nanna Plumb, and Black Aliss, chain of witches from whom Granny Weatherwax descends (implying she's *much* younger than Black Aliss?)
• Mr Thrum, casualty of the Stick and Bucket Dance
• Psychotic Lord Hargon of Quirm (mentioned)
• Biddy Spective, Nanny's mentor
• Weezen (mentioned)
• Mrs Persifleur, at whose lodging house Ridcully once stayed (mentioned)
• Carbonaceous, Ridcully's troll mate. Carbonaceous is not a rock, but references a quality some rocks have, particularly Carbonaceous chondrite, a type of meteorite. (mentioned)
• Queen Agantia of Skund (mentioned)
• Sobriety Ogg, Nanny's ex-husband (mentioned)
• Eva Carter, Bestiality's wife (mentioned)
• Creosote (mentioned)
• Greyhald Spold (mentioned)
• Queen Amonia of Lancre (mentioned)

Locations

• Ramtops
• Lancre
  • The Dancers
    • The Piper
    • The Drummer
  • The Long Man
  • Lancre Gorge through which flows the Lancre River, and which is spanned by Lancre Bridge (Lancratians aren't real creative on geographical naming)
  • Lancre Castle
    • Long Gallery, a long gallery
    • Great Hall, a great hall
    • Deep Dungeons, guess...
  • Cabb's Well (mentioned)
  • Copperhead Mountain
  • The Goat and Bush
• Fairyland
• Ankh-Morpork
  • Unseen University
    • Library
    • High Energy Magic building
  • Broad Way (mentioned)
    • The Dysk (mentioned)
    • Lord Wynkin's Men (mentioned)
    • Bearpit (mentioned)
• Genua (mentioned)
• Klatch (mentioned)
• Slice (mentioned)
  • The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine (mentioned)
• Bad Ass
• Sto Helit (mentioned)
• Dungeon Dimensions (mentioned)
• Ephebe (mentioned)
• Ohulan
  • Thrift Bank

Things and Concepts

• Nine Day Wonderers, Lancre religion possibly parodying either the Seventh-Day Adventist Church or the Church of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church).

• Strict Offlians, Lancre religion worshiping Offler

• Almanack And Booke Of Dayes, popular outhouse book

• Lancre Stripe and Sto Saddleback, breeds of pig

• Midsummer Day, date of Verence and Magrat's marriage

• unicorns

• dried frog pills

• Cripple Mister Onion

• Legendes and Antiquities of the Ramtops, by Birdwhistle, which records the duel between Granny and Diamanda (the fact that this even is a "legend" and "antiquity" implies Lords and Ladies takes place in the distant past?)

• Stick and Bucket Dance

• Lappet-faced Worrier or wowhawk, a particularly pathetic falcon

• Stacklady's Morphic Resonator, spell used to turn a bandit into a pumpkin (perhaps Magrat's wand in Witches Abroad was infested with this spell?)

• Klatchian Nights bath essence

• Twurp's Peerage

• Soul Cake Tuesday

• Martial Arts, a book that tells you how to fight

• Century of the Fruitbat, current century

Roundworld References

• Morris dancing

• Yossarian

• Tupperware

• Yankee Doodle, song

• The Magnificent Seven

Trivia

• Heavily spoofs Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Cover Artwork

• In the touring exhibition The Art of Josh Kirby, which at the time of writing was in the Walker Gallery in his home town of Liverpool, the full cover art of Lords and Ladies is exhibited - that is, in all three versions. The gallery annotation is that whilst Kirby normally loved working on a Pratchett book, this one was a frustrating nightmare to him, as the publishers kept rejecting it as inappropriate, or unsuitable, or otherwise not fit for their best-selling author's cover.

Kirby ended up doing at least three different versions of the cover art, one of which, in a much-altered form, was used for the hardback, depicting as many of the book's characters and scenes as possible in a broad panorama. A second entirely different version (depicting Nanny Ogg and Casanunda confronting the King of the Elves) was used for the paperback. Btw, the original artworks for the covers are a lot bigger than the books and apparently are reduced down several times for publication. You would be surprised, especially if, like this contributor, you'd never really given the publishing process for artwork much thought before.

Adaptations

Theatre

Adapted into a stage-play by Irana Brown in 2001, adapted again by Stephen Briggs in 2015.

Parts of the novel, along with The Science of Discworld II: the Globe, were used as the basis of the play The Shakespeare Codex, performed in 2016.

Fan Film

A fan-film was produced by Almost No Budget Productions in 2004.

Gallery

First Edition Cover by Josh Kirby

Book Proof

'Letterbox' Hardback

Cover by Darrell K. Sweet

Paperback 2004

Audio Cassette

Audio CD

Cover by Michael Sabanosh

Cover by Michael Sabanosh-paperback

US Cover

Paperback 2012

Unseen Library Edition

Discworld Collector’s Library Edition

Paperback 2022

External Links

Lords and Ladies Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

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