Oh, the Reader's Digest Book of the Unexplained... Liz, you're stirring up deep, dark memories... #pratchat91

#Pratchat91 – We Can Reference It For You Wholesale Liz and Ben do a little light Summer reading as they tackle one of the biggest Discworld books of all - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs’ The Discworld Companion, in all its various editions (but mostly 2021’s The Ultimate Discworld Companion). From the Abbott of the History Monks, to dimensionally-displaced traveller Jack Zweiblumen, the Discworld Companion is an alphabetical encyclopaedia of everything Discworld!

When is an encyclopaedia not an encyclopaedia? Maybe when everything in it is made up…

Liz and Ben discuss The #Discworld Companion in its various forms, but mostly the current edition, The Ultimate Discworld Companion, from Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs. #Pratchat91 (optional)

#pratchat91 There's nothing about the Tiffany Aching books in the 2003 "The New Discworld Companion" (published before "The Wee Free Men"), and lots in the Ultimate Companion. I don't have Turtle Recall, so I'm wondering how much it contains on the books, and what was removed between the editions

#pratchat91 <grin type="evil" /> Given that there were two versions of the "Ultimate" companion, which one was really only the penultimate version?

A photograph of a bookshelf. In front of the spine-out books are three face-on books: The Discworld Companion (updated edition), a smaller paperback with a “letterbox” cover illustration by Josh Kirby of various Discworld characters; Turtle Recall, a larger hardcover with a larger illustration by Marc Simonetti of various Discworld characters; and The Ultimate Discworld Companion, a trade paperback with an illustration by Paul Kidby of the Librarian with a lantern in the library.

Our next episode, #Pratchat91, will discuss The #Discworld Companion!

What favourite entries would you like us to discuss? What questions did it answer - and what (or who) was missing?

Get your questions and suggestions in ASAP - reply here, use the hashtag, or send us an email!

Photo of the covers of the book “The New Discworld Companion” (left) and “The Ultimate Discworld Companion” (right).

@pratchatpodcast.com I don’t have the original edition handy for comparison, but these two are *very* different books. Not just for what was added, but what was removed or altered between editions. Might be worth taking a look at both (or better yet all 3) if you can #pratchat91