Wee Free Men!

There can be only one thousand! I spotted the newest Terry Pratchett book in Dymocks in the IFC the other day, not very far from Prêt A Manger, which is where I usually go for my sandwich at lunch. (If I have much more than a sandwich for lunch, I'll spend the afternoon asleep in the office.)

For me, pTerry has been a buy his books on sight in hardback author for quite a long time now. His most recent book Night Watch was a superb Film Noir revisit to Sam Vimes' early life.

This new book, The Wee Free Men is the tale of what growing up to be a witch is all about. Terry Pratchett doesn't write children's books where "Dick sees Jane, sees Jane run!", he writes children's books where the heroes just haven't actually finished growing up yet. I've always felt very insulted reading a children's book where the author obviously thinks that children are some sort of mentally retarded adult. pTerry doesn't do that:

'Zoology, eh? That's a big word, isn't it?'

'No, actually it isn't,' said Tiffany, 'Patronizing is a big word. Zoology is really quite short.'

And that immediately tells you plenty about young Tiffany, who's as much a witch as Esmeralda Weatherwax.

Also, it has The Gonnagle as a war poet, and if you know anything about Scottish culture at all, you'll snort beer out your nose when he does his thing.

(For more of the un-surpassed poetry of William MacGonagall, please see http://www.taynet.co.uk/users/mcgon/).