Pratchat - a Terry Pratchett and Discworld book club

We invite you to JOIN US for a great leap forward to 2070, and one final story of weird alternate evolution, sideways human cultures, another Big Dumb Object and yes, still, Joshua Valienté. Joel Martin and Deanne Sheldon-Collins take one step beyond with us into Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s final Long Earth novel, 2016’s The Long Cosmos.

Ben provides a quick recap of the previous four Long Earth books just before we cover the finale with Joel and Deanne.

Did a thirteen year old sell his soul to be published alongside Michael Moorock, Mervyn Peake and Harry Harrison? Or was just a genius? Lucas Testro joins us to find out as we travel back to 1963 for Terry Pratchett's first ever published story, "The Hades Business"!

May the fourth 25th be with you! Or something like that. Yes, it's our fourth annual discussion of topics chosen by our Eeek tier subscribers, in celebration of the Glorious 25th of May.

In an emergency replacement episode, Ben flies solo...sort of! In honour of the Terry Pratchett Day theme for 2024, "Start in the Wrong Place", he's sharing listener's stories of how they started reading Pratchett in the "wrong" place.

'Pon our souls, we are not a boastin' podcast, but we reckon this episode with Freya Daly Sadgrove discussing Terry Pratchett’s Monstrous Regiment is a First Blast of Discworld goodness! You are our little listeners, and we will look after you.

Our monster-sized Monstrous Regiment episode needs a bit more time in the oven, so to tide you over here’s Ben with some nerdy news of Discworld books and games!

We were quite excited that our Monstrous Regiment episode would land on International Women’s Day...only it won’t! So here’s a bonus mini-episode recommending some other Discworld podcasts hosted by women and non-binary folks.

Dr Melissa Rogerson returns and joins Liz and Ben in a game of squabbling guilds, missing spells and the terrifying pitter patter of hundreds of tiny feet... It’s time to play the revised 2012 edition of Leonard Boyd and David Brashaw’s Guards! Guards! A Discworld Board Game, based on the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett.

Hogswatch isn’t just for Christmas - it’s also for new year’s eve! Which is also over. But we recorded this a while ago, and anyway this is a very special HogsWITCH, because Liz and Ben skip discussing a Terry Pratchett book to instead interview none other than the authors of Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch: Rhianna Pratchett and Gabrielle Kent!

On the eighth of December Pratchat gave to me: Eleven season's stories, Four silly Santas, Two carol chronicles, No special guests, And a full Prod-Ye-A'Diddle Oh! Join Liz and Ben as they unwrap Terry Pratchett’s 2017 short story collection, Father Christmas' Fake Beard.

How and why did a weird comic novel, originally published in an edition of 500 from a relatively unknown author, kick off one of the most beloved and long-running fantasy series of all time? Ben McKenzie investigates - well, speculates really - in this special episode looking at why Terry Pratchett's Discworld has endured so long, with contributions from Discworld luminaries, podcasters and fans.

John has had a rough night: he's narrowly escaped an explosion, his mobile disco business is up in flames, and his best mate Wayne has vanished. But that's nothing - wait until you hear who he met on the dancefloor... DJ and comedian Andrew McClelland joins us to discuss Terry Pratchett's 1989 short story, "Turntables of the Night"!

A priest, a wizard and a librarian walk into a courtroom… It sure sounds like a setup for a joke! But the Church of the Latter-Day Omnians aren’t laughing. They see Unseen University’s Roundworld as blasphemously infringing their intellectual property, i.e. the belief that the Disc is round. Complicating matters is the unexpected arrival of Marjorie Daw, Roundworld librarian, who has definite opin...

It’s a funny old life, the theatre...though less funny when you find yourself dead in an alley in Ankh-Morpork in mysterious circumstances. Or rather, when the Watch finds you. But never fear - Carrot is on the case! Author Caimh McDonnell (aka C. K. McDonnell) joins us to talk about Terry Pratchett’s 1993 Discworld short story, “Theatre of Cruelty”.

It’s the Disc, Kin, but not as we know it! There’s a giant turtle, but no giant elephants. There’s a Broken Drum, but it’s in a space station. And there’s something wrong with the sky - but that’s partly our fault, we crashed our spaceship into it... EJ Mann joins Liz and Ben to talk all about Terry Pratchett’s third novel, 1981’s Strata.

Historical superheroes! Explicit Jesus allegories! Big Dumb Objects! Yes, it’s another typical adventure in the Long Earth. Isn’t it? Find out as Deanne Sheldon-Collins joins Liz and Ben for a long chat about the penultimate Long Earth novel, 2015’s The Long Utopia.

Ben fills in the Gap to our delayed Long Utopia episode with a quick recap of the previous three books in the series.

Due to an Act of Glod, we've had to delay our Strata episode to later in the month. To get us there, Ben has engaged the Matrix drive and headed...Elsewhere. Specifically, into two areas Pratchat has never gone: current news from the world of Pratchett, and an interview with Danny Sag from the Australian Discworld Convention!

If you don't know why we're making this Bonus Episode of Pratchat, then you weren't there at Treacle Mine Road...but that's okay! You can still join us for our third annual discussion of topics chosen by our Eeek tier subscribers, in celebration of the Glorious 25th of May.

How do you solve a problem like a sick pig? Or a death? Or an invasion of elves? Send in the trainee witches! Steve Lamattina joins us to play and talk Martin Wallace’s second official Discworld board game, The Witches from 2013.

What do you call a witch finder with no eyes? You don’t call him - he calls you. And it’s not pleasant... Tiffany Aching is back, and this time, the whole world might just turn against her...except of course for Elizabeth Flux, Ben McKenzie and guest author Amie Kaufman, as they discuss I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT.

You can take the author out of the newspaper, but you can't take the nonfiction writer out of the journalist... Which is to say, in this first foray into his 2014 nonfiction collection A Slip of the Keyboard, author and publisher Peter M Ball joins us to talk about four pieces about fandom and genre from the book’s first section, “A Scribbling Intruder” - as well Plus we look at what Terry and his...

March, 1973. Pink Floyd release Dark Side of the Moon. The first computer with a graphical user interface and mouse, the Xerox Alpha, goes on sale. Andre the Giant wrestles in his first match in America. And in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, the Bucks Free Press publishes the first parts of "Rincemangle, the Gnome of Even Moor”... Now, fifty years later, we discuss one of those events with guest c...

Order, order! We call this 63rd monthly meeting of the Committee for Discussing Every Terry Pratchett Novel to order! Present are Elizabeth Flux, Ben McKenzie, and Matt Roden. On the agenda: the 2005 short story "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devlish Devices", and some carry-over items deferred from our 61st meeting, consisting of more questions about the novel Thud! Now where are those biscuits...