Penguin reveals 2026 Cover Design Award winners This year's competition saw students and emerging creatives reimagine classic fantasy novels Night Watch and A Wrinkle in Time By Adam Woodward 14/04/2026 Penguin Books has announced the winners of its 2026 Cover Design Award, the annual competition that invites emerging creatives to reimagine iconic titles from its catalogue. Designed to spotlight new talent, the award is open to entrants with no more than one year's professional experience, with this year's shortlist made up largely of students, alongside early-career designers and those currently working outside the creative industries.

Oh! In these days of Ai monstrosities, isn’t this a lovely human thing?

References from 2nd part of Fifth Elephant:
-TNG, Troi being in the command hierarchy & the dress uniforms
-Trigger's Broom from Only Fools & Horses, or the Ship of Theseus (mentioned in WandaVision)
-OFMD nose jar
-The ear mouse & Dolly the Sheep
-German food rules & eating currywurst in Berlin

The thing about 2-parters is that they're long and take a while to edit, so our next episode will be a short one. Before The Truth we'll have an episode about the Wyrd Sisters TV show from Cosgrove Hall.

The Fifth Elephant pt 2
The second part of our first 2-parter discusses dwarf gender, Uberwald, Igors and vampires, with some digressions. Content note for talk about UK transphobia, but we make it easily skippable.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

See scone/scone has never been an issue in our household. Pumps/plimsolls has been a mild point of contention.

Yes, and I purposely pronounced it to rhyme with Stone, to conform with the joke, but often had to pause to do that. Like @benmckenzie.com.au I'd naturally pronounce it to rhyme with 'gone', so it was good to hear people saying it my way.

Quite enjoying how in @pratchatpodcast.com's Fifth Elephant episode they spend a while discussing fat. Whereas we start with a whole thing about how to pronounce Scone, because -as Cathy says in pt 1- the UK has a lot of baggage around that particular baked good.

The Fifth Elephant pt 1
The first part of our first 2-parter has werewolves, vampires and dwarves on my! Vimes is out of Ankh-Morpork and hating it, Angua has to deal with her terrible family and too-nive boyfriend & Lady Sybil just wants a quiet chat
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

The Fifth Elephant part 2
In the second part of our first 2-parter (which is also the 2nd book of the Uberwald duology) we discuss dwarf gender, Trigger's Broom, Igors and Uberwald, with some digressions.
Content note: discussion of UK transphobia
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

It's Trans Day of Visibility today. Transwomen are women, trans men are men, non-binary people are valid, and trans rights are human rights. Trans* people exist across history and cultures, are not new (though wording may be) and are not a threat to us cisgender folks.

For the weekend crowd, part 1 of The Fifth Elephant
We discuss dwarven culture, werewolf fascism and the welcome return of Lady Sybil. Vimes hates being outside Ankh-Morpork, Angua hates her awful family and Cheery is bringing new pronouns back home.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

it's like a Terry Pratchett guest-edit of One Foot in the Grave, one of those aesthetics that definitely ought to have been tried before, and maybe being Mackenzie Crook helps with that. but nevertheless, big fan so far

pretty proud of the fact that I’ve been able to keep my QOTD thread going for nearly three years

the plan is to keep it up until they turn the lights off

Yeah, it doesn't have a big, standout quote, nor is it satirising a specific, recognisable thing, but we had a lot to say. It intros the clacks, continues various Watch characters' stories, deepens dwarf culture, brings Igors to Ankh-Morpork, there's a lot of moving things along.

The Fifth Elephant pt 1
Vimes has to leave Ankh-Morpork for the mysteries of Uberwald, with werewolves, vampires & dwarves. Luckily there's crime to investigate, unluckily the locals get very hostile. We discuss dwarven culture & werewolf fascism.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

Our first 2 part episode is coming and it is The Fifth Elephant, which is perhaps not one of the more widely quoted Discworld books. It was Cathy's favourite for a while though. We're aiming for the 2 parts to be released about a week apart.

Ok, here is the OFFICIAL AND ONLY CORRECT GUIDE to starting reading Pratchetts Books. Its a multiple step process, so read all steps carefully otherwise you will be wrong and shunned to eternity. 1. Go outside. 2. Trust the universe for once in your life. 3. Find any of these: Library, Thriftstore, secondhand bookshop, a cupboard with free books, your relatives or friends book shelf or storage boxes... 4. Locate the Pratchett Book. 5. The universe has now deciced with which book you must start with. 6. Compliment the universe for its wisdom. 7. From there on repeat the steps above.

You know what? Yes. This is the way. Let the narrative decide.

It could be argued that our podcast is a +3 year run up for Cathy to read Shepherd's Crown.

Remembering Terry – in our hearts and on our bookshelves. #TerryPratchett

Podcast update:
Out now - Carpe Jugulum
Editing/Recording* - The Fifth Elephant
Reading - The Truth

*Turns out we had a lot to say and recorded in 2 parts

Yes! We noticed that in Witches Abroad and knew it would come back in the oft-used quote from Carpe Jugulum about sin. Also in Carpe Jugulum, Granny concedes that Brutha got it right when he said that it is through other people we truly become people.

If you are in/around/can get to Cardiff in early April don't miss Peculiar Productions performing Carpe Jugulum. The show runs 8 - 11th April at the Gate Theatre.

thegate.gigantic.com/terry-pratch...

Carpe Jugulum
It's witches vs vampires in this book about tradition and modernising. Various characters are in 2 minds and sometimes that's helpful. It's a backdoor sequel to Small Gods and the final Weatherwax ending. With Feegles, phoenix & fascism.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

Indeed. In fact I think in a few of our episodes when Bloody Stupid Johnson is mentioned I've specifically stated "not a former UK Prime Minister".

@pratchatpodcast.com listening to your Carpe Jugulum episode is very vindicating, especially comparing Feegles to Smurfs, stated there's an essay to be written about fire in the book, as we said both in ours. Also, since it was 2020 yours came out, it's good to hear disgust about Boris Johnson

Ah, a time when the stars (possibly small, boring ones) align and the QOTD is from the book we most recently covered, and we spotted it. There's a lot about Granny in this episode, she don't thrive on nice & she ain't afraid anymore. Still proud tho.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

This is the timeline where nerd tech company founders got weird ideas from The Lord of the Rings, but I want to live in the timeline where the nerds all read the Discworld series & launched a green energy company called The Fifth Elephant.

For the weekend crowd, our Carpe Jugulum episode is here
It's witches vs vampires, in a book that's a low-key sequel to Small Gods, and features the final Weatherwax ending. Including genre-savvy vampires and the varied roles of witches.
diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

diningtablediscworld.podbean.com/e/dining-tab...

We do discuss towards the end of the episode how it works as an ending. Weren't looking ahead to Tiffany much then, but certainly something to consider when we get to Wee Free Men.