The Return of Penguin Greens

 

From the 1930s onwards crime novels published by Penguin had covers using a lot of green ink. This led to a clear distinction between two different kinds of novel – effectively all other novels (orange) and crime novels (green). This had the unintended effect of implying that these were different reading experiences or had different statuses when, of course, some ‘crime’ novels are simply among the best novels of any kind whereas orange novels came to seem more middle- to-upper brow even if they might be in practice be much less well written, ambition and plausible than novels by Dorothy M. Sayers, say, or Raymond Chandler. 

Famously it was on returning from a visit to Agatha Christie that Allen Lane, standing on a platform at Exeter station, had the idea for Penguin paperbacks and in the 1950s he once celebrated Christie’s birthday by printing in one go a million copies of her books (10 different novels x 100,000).

Crime of every description has therefore, from the most horrific to the most genteel, always stood at the heart of the entire Penguin enterprise. For reasons not now clear in the 1980s it was decided to drop the green spine and publish all fiction with an orange spine. Then design moved on again, often restricting the Penguin element to the bird logo itself and only keeping hints of Penguin orange. Around the same time light blue Pelicans were also dropped, with the Penguin colour schemes restricted to the black-spined Penguin Classics or the various shades of eau-de-Nil and grey for Penguin Modern Classics.

I have published various series as a Penguin employee over the years—Great Ideas, Little Black Classics and others—and it is really almost with a sense of embarrassment that it has taken until 2023 to realize that one of the most potent and fun traditional Penguin colour codes was simply lying around waiting to be reused: Green for Crime. I mention this because it is at some level shameful that it should have taken so many years to come up with something so straightforward that it barely qualifies as a concept or an idea: why didn’t we do this a decade ago? Two decades?

Lurking within Penguin Modern Classics we already published some of the greatest crime writers – Dorothy B. Hughes’s sensational In a Lonely Place, Eric Ambler’s great pre-War thrillers, Chester Himes’s wonderful, frenzied fantasies of Harlem, Ross Macdonald’s novels of southern California’s squalor lurking under the pretty surface. I am myself responsible at Penguin for the backlist of two great writers in the genre, John le Carré and Len Deighton, and yet had not noticed until very recently that these could be assembled into a matchless series of the greatest crime writers.

Once, very belatedly, we decided to proceed with the idea it seemed a shame not to add other writers. We already published Georges Simenon’s extraordinary books, of which he wrote so many (and at such a consistent level of excellence) that it would make sense to showcase a couple simply to give readers a way into his enormous oeuvre. Josephine Tey’s novels had just come out of copyright, so this provided the opportunity to publish her superb, unsettling The Franchise Affair and Brat Farrar. We also had C.S. Forester’s wonderfully nasty little shocker Payment Deferred about a murderous South London miser (written long before Forester became famous for the Hornblower novels).

For the series to be fresh though it needed some new discoveries and a lot of time was spent reading sometimes terrible books (please do not read anything by Peter Cheyney!) but also books which had just aged badly. I was particularly sorry that Helen MacInnes now seemed so lacklustre as my parents had loved her novels of international espionage when they were published – but now they seemed to consist predominantly of people endlessly walking around, having meals and checking into hotels, with very occasional outbursts of unengaging and tasteful violence.

Battling through some quite neither-here-nor-there stuff though made it much easier to spot wonderful things. Many recent crime novelists remain in print because of Kindle editions or print-on-demand versions, but it was very exciting to find two giants of British thriller writing from the 1970s and 1980s, Anthony Price and Michael Gilbert, available to be discovered. Both giants in their day, their work still has an ingenuity and excellence which has in no way dated – so Price’s Other Paths to Glory and Gilbert’s Game Without Rules joined the list. And I was tipped off to try Dick Lochte, whose 1985 debut Sleeping Dog is a classic, extremely funny piece of neo-noir with the simple but useful advice: if you are a jaded private investigator in L.A. and a girl on roller-skates asks you to help her find her missing dog, don’t say yes. The other great find was the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (real name Tarō Hirai – his pen name derives from the Japanese pronunciation of Edgar Allen Poe). Between the wars he wrote a number of thrilling and disturbing classics, some with a wonderful Tintin-like flavour (Gold Mask and The Black Lizard) and others with the depravity dialled up (Beast in the Shadows). All three of these are in the series. 

We are now finishing work on a third set of ten, including some just wonderfully recommendable stuff! Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Ian Fleming’s From Russia with Love, Anthony Price’s The Labyrinth Makers and John le Carré’s The Night Manager. Best of all (but of course they are all best) is a long forgotten classic of New York City noir, The Deadly Percheron by John Franklin Bardin, set in a gloomy wartime Manhattan and Coney Island. The fate of its decent psychiatrist hero as he unwillingly wades deeper and deeper into an inexplicable, surreal and truly horrible urban underbelly has to be experienced to be believed.

Here are the three sets, with the third not published until June 2024:

1. Davis Grubb NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
2. Edogawa Rampo BEAST IN THE SHADOWS
3. Dorothy B. Hughes IN A LONELY PLACE
4. Josephine Tey THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR
5. Eric Ambler JOURNEY INTO FEAR
6. John le Carré CALL FOR THE DEAD
7. Georges Simenon MAIGRET AND THE HEADLESS CORPSE
8. Len Deighton SS-GB
9. Ross Macdonald THE DROWNING POOL
10. Chester Himes COTTON COMES TO HARLEM
11. Dick Lochte SLEEPING DOG
12. Raymond Chandler THE BIG SLEEP & FAREWELL, MY LOVELY
13. Anthony Price OTHER PATHS TO GLORY
14. Michael Gilbert GAME WITHOUT RULES
15. Georges Simenon MAIGRET’S REVOLVER
16. C.S.Forester PAYMENT DEFERRED
17. Edogawa Rampo THE BLACK LIZARD
18. Eric Ambler THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS
19. Josephine Tey BRAT FARRAR
20. John le Carré TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
21. Anthony Price THE LABYRINTH MAKERS
22. Chester Himes A RAGE IN HARLEM
23. John le Carré THE NIGHT MANAGER
24. Edogawa Rampo GOLD MASK
25. Ian Fleming FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
26. Georges Simenon NIGHT AT THE CROSSROADS
27. John Franklin Bardin THE DEADLY PERCHERON
28. Ross Macdonald THE UNDERGROUND MAN
29. Shirley Jackson WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE
30. Cornell Woolrich I MARRIED A DEAD MAN

Any suggestions anyone might have for unfairly out-of-print crime and espionage classics would be warmly received!

Simon Winder is the Publishing Director at Penguin Press. 

2023 Petrona Award Winner Announced

The winner of the 2023 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year is: 

Femicide by Pascal Engman, translated from the Swedish by Michael Gallagher and published by Legend Press.

Pascal Engman will receive a trophy, and both the author and translator will receive a cash prize.

The judges’ statement on Femicide:

This year’s Petrona Award winner is a page-turning, absorbing and uncomfortable Swedish thriller. Femicide tells of a young woman, Emilie, who is found murdered in her Stockholm apartment in the same week that her violent ex-boyfriend is released from prison. Detective Vanessa Frank is assigned the case. Meanwhile, we hear the story of young journalist Jasmina, the survivor of a recent, severe sexual assault. Author Pascal Engman dives into the world of incels through Tom, a very believable character who is part of a weaponised gender war brought about by, amongst other things, misguided hatred, feelings of being ignored by society, and sexual frustration. Femicide comes to a pinnacle as the attacks against women escalate on a huge scale.

Continuing in the tradition of fellow Swedish authors Sjöwall and Wahlöö, and Henning Mankell, Pascal Engman uses his writing to comment on societal values making Femicide an interesting, fictional take on the multifaceted topic of violence against women. The book stood out to all the Petrona judges for several reasons. The way Femicide opens the reader’s eyes to the steadily increasing threat of the incel movement and what makes these men tick was felt by all the judges. Femicide is a challenging read that broadens thinking. The writing is well informed, the book has a good sense of urban space, and it picks up pace in a satisfying manner. There is a cast of interesting, and sometimes unconventional, characters for the reader to get to know. All the judges felt this book offered something creatively original that captured the zeitgeist of the early twenty-first century and it is a deserved winner.

Pascal Engman (author):

It feels incredibly significant to win this award. Several of my major idols and heroes in this genre have been recipients of it. I consider it an honour, a great honour. Writing Femicide was a unique experience. The research on the incel movement was very challenging. I was pulled towards their darkness in many ways. Therefore, I also want to thank Linnea, my fiancée, for putting up with me then, as she does now.

Michael Gallagher (translator):

Femicide was a fantastic book to work on. Pascal Engman certainly belongs to the Nordic Noir tradition, but his writing and his characters deftly reflect the tectonic shifts underway in Sweden and the wider world. Always unsettling and compelling, he is not bound by conventions or old cliches. I am delighted that the jury has recognised his talent and that my translation seems to have done it justice!

Cari Rosen (Legend Press Commissioning Editor

We are so thrilled that Femicide has been chosen as the winner of this year's Petrona Award. The novel delves into the world of incels after a series of brutal attacks against women, and perfectly encapsulates the pace, drama and drive of Pascal's writing. The Vanessa Frank series has sold more than a million copies worldwide and everyone at Legend is delighted to be able to bring this, the first of three books, to an English-speaking audience thanks to Michael Gallagher's expert translation.

The Petrona team would like to thank David Hicks for his continuing sponsorship of the Petrona Award.

Back From The Dead: The Golden Age Revival by Tom Mead

In a field as diverse as crime fiction, “Golden Age” means different things to different people. To some, it’s an intractable term for murder mysteries written between the World Wars. Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley, John Dickson Carr, E.C.R. Lorac, Christianna Brand, et al are all exemplars of the Golden Age crime novel. But to others – myself included – it is in fact a considerably looser term which refers to a certain style of murder mystery, and one which has been enjoying a well-deserved renaissance in recent years. 

To me, the Golden Age is synonymous with the puzzle mystery, where a detective is tasked with identifying a criminal through the use of logic and deduction. There are bonus points, too, if the reader is able to play along and have a crack at solving the case themselves. 

Even after the Golden Age officially ended, this type of mystery did not go away. Throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century, several high-profile authors produced numerous works that fall within that category. For example, Simon Brett’s Fethering mysteries feature amateur sleuths in a village setting – thematically speaking, pure Agatha Christie. Meanwhile, Paul Doherty’s mysteries are set hundreds or even thousands of years in the past, but nonetheless employ classic Golden Age plotting techniques, such as the “closed circle” of suspects, the sifting of alibis, and the “impossible crime.”

Other authors have interpolated Golden Age-style puzzle plotting in contemporary police procedurals. Think of Peter Lovesey’s Peter Diamond series, Martin Edwards’s Lake District mysteries, or Kate Ellis’s Wesley Peterson series. All of these bear the deductive hallmark of the Golden Age, albeit subtly. 

As for my own experience, I grew up in a house full of Agatha Christie novels; they were among the first "grown up" books I actually read. So the Golden Age was a constant presence throughout my formative years, both in book form and on TV thanks to the ITV Poirot adaptations, plus the frequent repeats of films like Murder on the Orient Express. But when I went to university and studied English lit and creative writing, there was a tendency to lean away from "genre" fiction and toward the more overtly literary. 

However, the Golden Age has a funny way of creeping back into your conscious mind. Inevitably, I delved into the past, and returned to the authors I’d loved when I was younger. To my surprise and delight, I found that I enjoyed them more, not less. But not only that; there were heaps of “new” authors (new to me, anyway) whose works had been out-of-print for almost a century but were now enjoying posthumous rediscovery. Authors I’d never heard of before, like John Bude and J. Jefferson Farjeon. 

This boom in Golden Age reissues over the last ten years or so has been largely spearheaded by Martin Edwards’s British Library Crime Classics series and Otto Penzler’s American Mystery Classics series. Coupled with certain high-profile critical reassessments by genre scholars like Edwards himself (The Golden Age of Murder), John Curran (The Hooded Gunman), Curtis Evans (Masters of the “Humdrum” Mystery), and Jeffrey Marks (Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography) – not to mention A-list Hollywood movies like Knives Out – it’s fair to say the Golden Age whodunit is back with a vengeance. 

Anthony Horowitz, for instance, has recently commenced a wonderful new series which is not only Golden Age in style, but about the Golden Age. I’m talking about Magpie Murders, where a vintage mystery pastiche is coupled with a present-day murder plot, perfectly encapsulating the spirit of the revival. Meanwhile, authors like Janice Hallett and Vaseem Khan write complex puzzle mysteries which offer the same level of reader satisfaction as the classics. Pleasingly, the trend appears to be global, with authors such as Sulari Gentill (Australia) and Ovidia Yu (Singapore) combining the puzzle plot and the historical fiction milieu to excellent effect. Additionally, the way in which the Golden Age style is evoked can be startlingly diverse – ranging from the cosy crime of Robert Thorogood to the Scandi-noir of Ragnar Jonasson.

Whichever way you look at it, there is a steadily growing crowd of authors who are endeavouring to recapture the style, the distinctive characters, the period detail, and the great plots that made the Golden Age golden. My own books Death and the Conjuror and The Murder Wheel are my attempts to engage with this revival. As both a writer and a reader, I’m eager to see where we go from here. 

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead (Head of Zeus) Out of Now

In London, 1938, young and idealistic lawyer Edmund Ibbs is trying to find any shred of evidence that his client Carla Dean wasn’t the one who shot her husband dead at the top of a Ferris Wheel. But the deeper he digs, the more complex the case becomes, and Edmund soon finds himself drawn into a nightmarish web of conspiracy and murder. Before long he himself is implicated in not one but two seemingly impossible crimes.

First, a corpse appears out of thin air during a performance by famed illusionist “Professor Paolini” in front of a packed auditorium at the Pomegranate Theatre. Then a second victim is shot dead in a locked dressing room along one of the theatre’s winding backstage corridors. Edmund is in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, and attracts the suspicion of Scotland Yard inspector George Flint. Luckily, conjuror-turned-detective Joseph Spector is on the scene. Only Spector’s uniquely logical perspective can pierce the veil of deceit in a world of illusion and misdirection, where seeing is not always believing.

The Murder Wheel by Tom Mead is published by Head of Zeus on 12th October at £20

More information about Tom Mead and his work can be found on his website. You can also find him on Facebook and on X @TomMeadAuthor and on Instagram @tommeadauthor

Richard Armitage on Writing Geneva

Hi everyone, 

Richard Armitage here introducing you to my Shots magazine guest post and my debut novel ‘Geneva’. Some of you might know me through my work as an actor on TV, Film and Stage, but also from the many recordings I have made for Audible which is how ‘Geneva’ came about. Audible asked me if I would be interested in writing a crime thriller; one of the genres which I was particularly enthusiastic about as one of their readers and I didn’t have to be asked twice; I jumped at the chance. There have been various doors which brought me to my work as an actor, but my love of literature was the driving force. Many of the roles I have played have been adaptations of novel; Tolkien's ‘The Hobbit’, ‘North and South’ by Elizabeth Gaskell, Harlan Coben's ‘The Stranger’ ‘Stay Close’ and Josephine Harts ‘Damage’ and many more. These authors have inspired me, and I’ve always loved working on drama that begins life as a book. Literature has played a crucial role in how I prepare a character; I always have a pile of research books for each person that I am examining.

Over the years I have acquired an obsession for the structure of storytelling. What makes us lean in? What makes the hairs on the backs of our necks stand up? What makes us rush home to watch the next episode or read the next chapter? I set out to find out the answers to these questions when I began work on ‘Geneva’.

I’ve always be curious about science and science fiction which is has its toes on the line of ‘science fact’. I had friends who's loved ones had been touched by dementia, and I was dreaming of this story at the end of the Covid pandemic, which gave me the seeds of an idea for a story. I had followed the work of Sarah Gilbert who was the virologist who headed up the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine program, so she became my foundation. Inspired by the films of Hitchcock and Orson Wells, and story tellers such as Agatha Christie and Ian Fleming, I set out to write a modern crime thriller with a central female character, Sarah Collier, who finds herself at the centre of a sabotage story and an unfathomable crime. At the heart of the tale is a once impassioned marriage which is now broken, a happy family decaying from the inside, but a dazzling opportunity presents itself which Daniel Collier, Sarah’s husband, believes will fix all of their woes. However, the course of events which unfold in Geneva are not quite what Sarah had anticipated. 

This was a debut novel for me so as I imagine most first attempts are, a big, exciting experiment of themes and ideas. I have worked closely in the past with screenwriters and producers on TV and Film scripts but have never fully held the reins of the story myself until now. It was a huge learning curve and one which I hope will serve me well for future stories. I started writing the story of ‘Geneva’ in a Winnebago up in Manchester on the set of ‘Stay Close’. My next stop was a hotel room just outside Seville on the set of ‘The Man from Rome’, another hotel in Madrid, and a third in Rome (what a life!!!), I wrote on the long-haul flight from New York to London as I came home for Christmas 2021. Another Winnebago on the set of the Netflix show, ‘Obsession’, as I did the final edits and then I decided to put the finishing touches to the novel from the city of Geneva itself. I toured the city and its environs, finding all the places in the novel that you might notice if ever you get to visit, I rented a car and travelled to the mountains of Chateaux D’Oex and Gsaadt, trying to make sure my geography was as accurate as possible. I found a potential site for The Schiller Institute and the place where Daniels car tumbles off the edge of a cliff (spoiler alert!). One might say I was on an early location scout for the TV adaptation… well all I can say is ‘watch this space’.

I really hope that you enjoy Geneva.

Geneva by Richard Armitage (Faber & Faber) Out Now 

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sarah Collier has started to show the same tell-tale signs of the Alzheimer's disease as her father: memory loss, even blackouts. So she is reluctant to accept the invitation to be the guest of honour at a prestigious biotech conference - until her husband Daniel, also a neuroscientist, persuades her that the publicity storm will be worth it. The technology being unveiled at this conference could revolutionise medicine forever. More than that, it could save Sarah's life. In Geneva, the couple are feted as stars - at least, Sarah is. But behind the five-star luxury, investors are circling, controversial blogger Terri Landau is all over the story, and Sarah's symptoms are getting worse. As events begin to spiral out of control, Sarah can't be sure who to trust - including herself.

More information about his novel Geneva can be found on the website. You can find Richard Armitage on X @RCArmitage and on Instagram @richardcarmitage

Photograph - ©Kaitlyn Mikayla

Bursary for crime fiction author of colour

 

CrimeFest, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, is offering a bursary for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend its festival next May.

The bursary will cover the cost of a full Weekend Pass to the convention and a night’s accommodation at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, and a guaranteed panel appearance.

Eligible authors must have published at least one English language book in traditional print by a British commercial publisher.

CrimeFest launched the bursary in 2021 with the first award going to Saima Mir to attend the 2022 convention, for her debut novel, The Khan, which was a Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Year.

Saima Mir, who grew up in Bradford, said that the bursary allowed her to, “be inspired by the company of seasoned storytellers, fulfil my childhood ambition, and to act as a beacon to other women who dare to dream of being published novelists, but fear the space is not for girls like them.”

2023’s bursary winner was Elizabeth Chakrabarty, whose critically-acclaimed debut crime novel Lessons in Love and Other Crimes was inspired by her own experience of a serious race hate crime in the workplace.

Donna Moore, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “The bursary is an important addition to CrimeFest, and one we are committed to build on. As a democratic convention open to all commercially published authors in the genre, CrimeFest is a natural hotbed for diverse talent. We’re aware however that more needs to be done to ensure festivals and conventions actively support writers of colour.”

Nominees for the bursary will be reviewed by Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Chair and author Vaseem Khan, and the freelance crime fiction critic and CWA judge, Ayo Onatade.

Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India - the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. Ayo Onatade works with Justices at the Supreme Court, and is a well-known blogger and CWA Red Herring award-winning freelance crime fiction critic.

Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days.

CrimeFest, now in its 16th year, was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. It was established in 2008. It follows the egalitarian format of most US conventions, making it open to all commercially published authors and readers alike.

Dates for next year's Bristol CrimeFest are 9-12 May, 2024.

Email info@crimefest.com for more details on how to apply.

 

Leonora Nattrass on the Inspiration for Scarlet Town

I am lucky enough to live in a seventeenth-century farmhouse five miles from Helston in West Cornwall. Helston is a beautiful town, if presently fallen on rather hard times like many a high street up and down the land. The buildings on its four main streets are mostly listed, which means that their old architecture is still authentic, if a little shabby, and the church is set on a hill above the town amid shady old streets of immense charm and character.

When I wrote Black Drop, the first in my Laurence Jago series of historical crime mysteries set in the 1790s, it seemed natural to me to make my main character, Laurence, a farmer’s son from my adopted county of Cornwall.

Searching for a name for my main character, I idly looked back through parish records about our own house and its inhabitants, and came across a Marie, a Laurence and a Grace living here in the 1640s. Laurence duly acquired a home in the shape of our own house, a mother named Marie and a sister named Grace. And it was perhaps from these suggestive names that the idea of their being half-French first occurred to me – an idea which seemed plausible enough, given the profitable smuggling trade between Cornwall and France in the eighteenth-century.

This was an idea full of possibilities in the context of the French Revolution raging across the channel, and Laurence working for the British government newly at war with the French republic.

In Black Drop, Laurence lives amid the dust and squalor of eighteenth-century London, working as a clerk to the Foreign Office, but always pining for the peace and beauty of the Cornish countryside. In the sequel, Blue Water, he is even further away from home, aboard a Post Office mail ship bound for Philadelphia. But even here, Cornwall looms large, for Falmouth’s packet ships, manned by Cornish crews, were the means by which news and correspondence spread around the globe. 

Nevertheless, I always wanted to bring Laurence home to Cornwall, and when I discovered the story of the 1790 election in Helston (in the wonderful resource ParliamentaryHistory Online, an ongoing project funded by the Houses of Parliament) I realised it would be a perfect vehicle for Laurence’s third adventure in Scarlet Town.

The true story was preposterous – a real case of truth being stranger than fiction, which is always very satisfactory to a historical crime writer! In the Helston election of 1790, a single octogenarian voter in the town sent two MPs to Westminster. He was the last of six old freemen, whom Parliament had decreed would have the honour of returning the town’s MPs until they all died.

This old voter was firmly in the pocket of the town’s patron, the Duke of Leeds, who told him who to vote for. Riled by this seigneurial arrangement, and rightly thinking the whole situation absurd, the mayor and corporation of the town set up a rival electorate of about thirty men, and, when the general election was called, the town duly split into fierce warring supporters of each side.

Even better from my point of view was the discovery that the mayor and corporation were equally outrageous: locked in terrible family feuds, refusing to accept the results of their own internal elections of aldermen and mayor, flouncing out of meetings, and constantly suing each other in the courts. I always like a world where no one is entirely good, no one is entirely bad, and apparently straightforward moral questions are mired in ambiguity.

Moreover, eighteenth-century elections were gloriously comic affairs too, being a kind of carnival even for those who couldn’t vote – and especially entertaining since there was no such thing as a secret ballot, and every voter was obliged to announce his choice in public, to the hoots – and possible physical retribution – of his opponents. Wild, libellous accusations of wrongdoing were rife, along with obscene but very funny songs, especially if ladies chose to involve themselves in the hustings. “If for the Man of the People you’ll poll/You may tickle a Duchess’s tol de rol lol,” they sang in the Westminster election of 1784 – a song I shamelessly stole and reworded for Scarlet Town.

Moving the election to 1796 when Laurence returned to Cornwall from America – and adding Toby, the “Sapient” fortune-telling Hog, along with a juicy murder – set the stage for Laurence to begin a new adventure at home in Cornwall, among the beautiful streets which he and I know and love so well.

Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass is out now (Viper, £16.99)

1796. A rigged election. A town at war. A murderer at large. Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago and his larger-than-life employer the journalist William Philpott have escaped America - and Philpott's near imprisonment for libel - by the skin of their teeth. They return to Laurence's hometown of Helston, Cornwall, in the hope of rest and recuperation, but instead find themselves in the middle of a tumultuous election that has the inhabitants of the town at one another's throats. Only two men may vote in this rotten borough, and when one of them dies in suspicious circumstances, Laurence is ordered to investigate on behalf of the town's patron, his old master the Duke of Leeds. But it is no easy matter, thanks to the machinations of the rival political factions, not to mention the riotous performances of Toby the Sapient Hog. Then the second elector is poisoned and suspicion turns on the town doctor, the gentle Pythagoras Jago, Laurence's own cousin. Suddenly Laurence finds himself ensnared in generations of bad blood and petty rivalries, with his cousin's fate in his hands.

All 41 Discworld novels ranked best to worst.

This year Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series turns 40 years old. If you asked him what it was about he’d probably say something along the lines of “it’s about how real people would act if they were in a fantasy novel, it’s about societies and people and how they tick”. If you asked anyone else, they’d tell you it’s about a flat world on the back of four giant elephants travelling through space on a huge turtle. Both versions are true.

From The Colour of Magic, published in November of 1983 (when its author was a 35-year-old former journalist working in PR for the electricity board) to The Shepherd’s Crown (published posthumously in the summer of 2015 when its author was a national treasure, a millionaire many times over and a celebrated knight of the realm) there were 41 Discworld novels. Even when struggling through the impossibly horrible fug of Alzheimer’s disease, he still managed to write one nearly every year. That’s a staggering output. For three decades we got at least one new Discworld book almost every year. Usually two. In 2001 he managed three.*

And they’re all good. Honestly, they are. There’s no such thing as a bad Terry Pratchett book, although obviously some are better than others. Indeed, some of them are incredible: legitimate masterpieces and timeless classics. And some of them are just “quite good”. What follows is my pretty thoroughly researched, but still definitely subjective attempt to rank them from best to worst, though it should be noted that Terry Pratchett’s worst book would be many other author’s masterpiece. As I said, there are no bad books here, just different gradients of wonderful. Your personal list will probably be totally different; but think of the fun you’ll have finding out …

1. "Night Watch" (2002) 

Commander Vimes, arguably Pratchett’s greatest character and one of literature’s best ever cops, travels back in time and has to mentor his younger self. It's the closest Discworld gets to a thriller, it’s profound, exciting, moving and it’s a masterclass in character development. An astonishing novel. 

2. "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" (2001) 

Discworld for kids, but don't let that put you off. It's a complex look at morality, society, the nature of the self and probably the darkest thing Pratchett ever wrote. It justly won the Carnegie Medal that year, giving Pratchett his first ever major award … A must-read, no matter your age. 

3. "Thud!" (2005) 

Vimes and the City Watch investigate a dwarfish murder that could set off a war. It's a deep dive into ethnic tensions and religious divisions, very much informed by the atmosphere of the post-9/11 real world and treated with the seriousness it deserves. It’s really good, honestly. Has an accompanying book for toddlers, “Where’s My Cow”, that is charm itself. 

4. "Monstrous Regiment" (2003) 

A young woman disguises herself as a man to join the army. It's Mulan meets Discworld, with a heavy dose of commentary on the futility of war and the boundaries that gender puts around us. One of his sharpest and angriest. 

5. "The Wee Free Men" (2003) 

Tiffany Aching, an eight-year old would-be witch, makes her debut. She's smart, resourceful, and has to rescue her brother from the Queen of the Fairies. What's not to love in this great updating of the Alice in Wonderland archetype? Pratchett was made an honorary Brownie Guide after this for writing a “proper girl”.

    6.    "Hogfather" (1996) 

The Grim Reaper as Santa? Yep, it works, and it's magical. Pratchett’s look at belief and folklore is one of his very best, and Death’s speech about the function of storytelling in human society (“take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy …”) gets to the heart of the author’s personal philosophy. 

    7.      "I Shall Wear Midnight" (2010) 

Tiffany is now a full-fledged witch and has to confront one of the most horrible villains in Pratchett’s canon. For an ostensibly young-adult book, this one goes to some incredibly dark places, but it’s also absolutely beautiful. 

    8.    "Carpe Jugulum" (1998) 

Witches vs. vampires! Granny Weatherwax, another of Pratchett’s best creations, struggles with her own mortality here, making this one a high-stakes and slightly bleak entry, as befits a book that plays with vampiric lore. Granny’s speech on the definition of sin (“sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself”) is another one that cuts to the heart of the author’s morality. 

    9.    "Going Postal" (2004) 

Meet Moist von Lipwig, a con man turned postmaster. A refreshing change in protagonist and an interesting look at communication and con-artistry that opened up the “industrial revolution” of Discworld. A plot that ticks like a finely balanced Swiss watch. 

    10.    "The Fifth Elephant" (1999) 

Vimes gets diplomatic in this politically charged police procedural. The Discworld take on international relations is funny, genuinely action packed and razor-sharp. Plus there’s a scene riffing on Chekov’s Cherry Orchard which is solid gold.

    11.    "Wintersmith" (2006) 

Tiffany Aching accidentally joins in a supernatural Morris dance and nearly dooms the world to eternal winter. Rich with folklore, mythology and charm with Pratchett finding new notes to play in his world. Fun fact – prog/folk legends Steeleye Span wrote a genuinely good concept album based on this book.

    12.    "Small Gods" (1992)

Anyone thinking that early Discworlds are all silly jokes and parodies can be pointed here, as Pratchett takes aim at the tension between pure faith and religious dogma, and the difference between truly believing and simply following the rules. It’s deep stuff, and it’s powerful – we start to see the author’s genuine anger here, and he still manages to make it funny. One of the very best. 

    13.    "Feet of Clay" (1996)

Commander Vimes investigates a series of murders and the poisoning of the Patrician. A deep dive into identity, personhood and the soul, all wrapped in a very smart detective story. It’s properly brilliant, and a surprisingly good starting point to the series. 

    14.    "Making Money" (2007)

Moist von Lipwig’s second adventure takes on the world of banking and rips it to shreds. By the time the paperback came out the global financial crash had happened, making Pratchett look like a prescient genius. The fact it has an artful skewering of the financial system and a scene where a dog thinks a dildo is a chew toy is solid-gold Pratchett, and the ending is perfect. 

    15.    "A Hat Full of Sky" (2004) 

Tiffany Aching is back, and she's taking on a body-stealing monster. This darker sequel to Wee Free Men delves deeper into her character, cementing the young witch as one of Pratchett’s finest creations. It has a lot to say about growing up and perception, and there’s oodles of great folklore stuff. 

    16.    "Snuff" (2011) 

Vimes on vacation—but not really. He can't help but sniff out crime wherever he goes. A smart and incredibly impactful instalment, absolutely vibrating with anger at the way a race of people can be treated as subhuman (back to the definition of sin again). The central mystery is never as compelling as the morality, but the story whips along at a pace. 

    17.    "Guards! Guards!" (1989)

Pratchett’s first police procedural, and one of his best. In many ways it sets the tone for the rest of the franchise. He plays with the expectations we’ve been trained into by centuries of fairy tales by having a dashing, charismatic young man with a mysterious destiny come to town and then making him a secondary character – leaving room for the real hero of the piece; the cynical, angry alcoholic Captain Vimes, one of Pratchett’s best creations and a character that would grow with the series and its author. It works brilliantly as a parody and as a crime caper and as a very human, character-led piece. 

    18.    "Lords and Ladies" (1992)

Doing for A Midsummer Night's Dream what Wyrd Sisters did for Macbeth, this is one of the most action-packed Discworlds. Again, the expectations of the story are the key theme, and Terry pushes his central trio of witches as far as each will go. It’s masterful character writing, and in the evil Elves we get a proper boo-hiss villain we can truly be scared of. 

    19.    "Witches Abroad" (1991)

Really hitting his stride on the theme of stories, Pratchett sends his three witches on holiday, puncturing classic fairy tales as they go. It’s a delight, with some surprisingly emotional bits. The central trio continue to deepen as characters. It’s an author absolutely feeling his oats. 

    20.    "The Truth" (2000)

The Discworld gets its first newspaper. It’s All the President’s Men with a fantasy twist. Clever, but not as emotionally resonant as others. Important as the point in the series where Pratchett does away with a lot of the fantasy trappings of the early books for good and moves on to what is, essentially, Victorian London. 

    21.    "Maskerade" (1995) 

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg tackle the Discworld's version of opera. It's the "Phantom of the Opera" but with practical witches and many exclamation marks!!!!! Stellar in wit and tension, and a really good mystery – though if you know the career of the actor Michael Crawford then you’ll guess the twist. 

    22.    "Thief of Time" (2001) 

Time is literally of the essence in this one. Death and his granddaughter, Susan, have to stop a plot to freeze time. It’s philosophical and action-packed, and also contains a clever way to explain away any continuity errors you might have spotted in earlier books. Literary giant AS Byatt claimed this one deserved the Booker Prize.

    23.    "Wyrd Sisters" (1988)

Having spent the first five books in the series doing Disc-trotting adventures, Pratchett finally has the confidence to keep his focus in one place (more or less), bringing back Equal Rites’ Granny Weatherwax and giving her a little coven of her own to (sort of) run, for a thoroughly entertaining re-treading of Macbeth. This is the first time we see Pratchett playing with our expectations of stories – we know what’s supposed to happen when the rightful heir to throne takes on the evil usurper. Confounding those expectations is what powers the plot. It’s a trick he would return to time and again. The characters and the jokes here absolutely sing (often about Hedgehogs). 

    24.    "Men at Arms" (1993)

We return to the characters of Guards! Guards! for a true police procedural. It’s a solid mystery that deals with the ethics of violence and the law. The character of Vimes really comes into his own here, as does the expanded cast of watchmen. Great stuff. 

    25.    "Mort" (1987)

The book where Pratchett himself said he discovered the “joy of plot”, and the one he would often recommend people started with. Mort is an utter joy – funny, very smart and like nothing else that was around at the time. Giving the scythe-wielding CAPITAL LETTER SPEAKING grim reaper the centre stage (which, incidentally, was Neil Gaiman’s idea) was genius and in Death, Pratchett creates one of his all-time great characters.

    26.    "The Shepherd's Crown" (2015)

Terry Pratchett's final novel is an emotional rollercoaster for fans. By this point, Pratchett knew he was unlikely to complete another story (though he still planned to try) and this book is as much about passing the torch as it is about wrapping up the series. We say goodbye to some series-long characters, and while some elements of the plot feel a little under-baked (an afterword by Pratchett’s assistant, Rob Wilkins, says the author’s alzheimer’s disease progressed during the writing to the point he couldn’t give the book his accustomed final polish – he wouldn’t live to see it published), it leaves us with a sense of closure. It's not Pratchett at his peak, but considering the circumstances of its creation, it's a dignified and touching finale. And do you know what? Removed from those circumstances and the weight it inevitably carries, this is still a cracking YA adventure, with loads to love. 

    27.    "Unseen Academicals" (2009)

Football comes to Discworld. The breakthrough came when the decidedly sports-averse author realised that football isn’t actually about football – it’s about people. There’s lots going on here (it’s Pratchett’s longest book by some measure) and the whole never quite stitches together its constituent parts, but there’s still plenty to enjoy. The “crab bucket” speech is a wonderful piece of social commentary.

    28.    "Raising Steam" (2013)

In the last adult Discworld novel, Pratchett introduces steam power to the world and effectively brings his creation to the modern age. It's an ambitious tale of progress versus tradition, focusing mainly on Moist von Lipwig, the reformed scoundrel now responsible for the Discworld’s railways. While its core message about technological progress is well-executed, and its points about fundamentalist terrorism are powerful, the book does feel like it’s stretching to accommodate all its characters and themes. Pratchett’s encroaching Alzheimer’s had taken some of his edge by this point, though frankly when you consider what he was going through, it’s an astonishing achievement. Many writers at the peak of their powers couldn’t get close to this. 

    29.    "Reaper Man" (1991)

A game of two halves. Reaper Man has two intertwining plots, and they are by no means equal. The first, in which Death is relieved of duty and gets a job as a farm hand called Bill Door is absolutely wonderful, and has a conclusion that will squeeze tears from the most stubborn of souls – possibly the first Pratchett book to do so. Sadly, the second plot, about a zombie wizard and a gang of persecuted undead, is a bit lacking – despite some sharp observations about consumer culture and horror movie riffs. Pratchett later said he wished he'd written two books. 

    30.    "The Last Hero" (2001) 

A final send-off to the classic "sword and sorcery" characters of early Discworld. It's shorter and lighter than most, especially in this period, though Paul Kidby’s illustrations (unlike the earlier Eric this has never been published without the artwork) are absolutely gorgeous and the whole thing is worth it for Cohen the Barbarian’s “no more worlds to conquer” moment. 

    31.    "Moving Pictures" (1990)

Pratchett takes aim at the movie industry, giving him endless parody opportunities. It’s one of his funniest, especially if you know your Hollywood history (inverting King Kong by having a giant woman climbing a tower holding a struggling ape is inspired), though it’s not one of his deeper works. That said, there’s some creepy HP Lovecraft influences if you know where to look. The audiobook, narrated by Hollywood star Jason Issaacs, is really good. 

      32.    "Soul Music" (1994) 

Death takes a break, and his granddaughter Susan has to step in, just as "Music with Rocks In" hits Discworld. Rock & roll plus Pratchett equals a hilarious and poignant look at the power of music and a surprisingly subtle treatise on grief. This one gets an extra half-point for the sly musical references.

    33.    "The Last Continent" (1998) 

Rincewind the wizard tackles Discworld's version of Australia. There are jokes aplenty, but they sometimes get in the way of the plot, leaving it a bit disjointed. Still fun, but not Pratchett's best. Fun fact – I know two Australian Discworld fans, one of whom loves this book for its take on Aussie culture and the other absolutely hated it for the same reason. 

    34.    "Pyramids" (1989)

A good little adventure story, part The Mummy, part Tom Brown’s School Days, with an excellent Ouroboros twist. Not one of the most essential of the early Discworlds, but an entertaining romp all the same. It sets another Pratchett template: take a single subject (here, ancient Egypt) and wring it for all the jokes you can find. 

    35.    "Interesting Times" (1994)

Rincewind is back and he's off to the Agatean Empire—a parody of ancient China (and sometimes, slightly problematically, Japan). While it’s often funny, and has something to say about revolutions and class, the book sometimes falls into stereotypical pitfalls. It’s saved by the jokes though, and by this point in the series Pratchett always has something meaningful to say. 

    36.    "Jingo" (1997) 

War looms over Ankh-Morpork and Klatch. The City Watch has to stop it. A timely tale of nationalism and prejudice (Pratchett is particularly good at unpicking the mechanics of racism), although sometimes a little too on the nose. 

    37.    "Equal Rites" (1987)

Moving away from the characters of books one and two and creating a female-focussed and rural story was a smart move, and the third Discworld novel expands the universe in enough ways to ensure the franchise would have a future. What’s more, it’s the first Terry Pratchett novel that really has something to say. Its look at gender roles in the genre is canny, and the character of Granny Weatherwax, though not yet the force she would become, is instantly wonderful. Not as funny as others, but wise and compelling. It’s the book that proves Pratchett had more than one trick up his billowing sleeves. 

    38.    "The Light Fantastic" (1986)

Pratchett was later dismissive of the first few Discworld books, and that was perhaps unfair. There’s a lot in The Light Fantastic to enjoy – here the author starts to stretch his legs a bit and ventures beyond just D&D puns and nerdy references, and as ever Rincewind and Twoflower are likeable companions who both have interesting character arcs. It’s a light story, and Pratchett isn’t always aware that he’s sending up epic fantasy whilst also falling into its traps, but it holds up surprisingly well. It was certainly his most accomplished book up to this point. 

    39.    "The Colour of Magic" (1983)

The very first Discworld book (though not a novel – technically it’s four interlinked short stories). It's naive, absolutely, especially compared to what Pratchett was writing just a few years later, and a lot of the jokes require some knowledge of 1970s fantasy archetypes. It contains a couple of gags that simply don’t work, and clangingly so – something you could never accuse him of down the line. Pratchett gets just a little too excited about world-building, ladening his new world with unnecessarily details (a lengthy, joke-free footnote on how the seasons work on a flat world, for example) establishing rules and physics he’d simply ignore a few books down the road. And yet, 40 years on, The Colour of Magic still has real charm, mostly because, in its central duo of Rincewind, the inept wizard, and Twoflower, the naive tourist, Pratchett created solid, relatable, likeable companions around whom all the fantasy madness could happen … and those characters still work. Rincewind was essentially the 30-something Terry Pratchett, baffled and vexed by the sheer unfairness of the universe and frustrated by the obstacles thrown in the way by gods playing silly buggers. He’s a great character, though Pratchett gets bored of him pretty quickly. 

A lot of people start here, which annoyed Pratchett no end, given how much better the stories got, but most readers are hooked enough to carry on. By no means his best, but it’s an important book. 

    40.    "Sourcery" (1988)

Something of a backwards step. After broadening the world with Equal Rites and Mort, Pratchett felt it was important to throw his early fans a bone and go back to the pure-fantasy roots of the series. Unfortunately all he really does is retread Rincewind’s arc from the Light Fantastic in a more convoluted way. It’s not a bad book (there are no bad Pratchett books), but despite some fun gags, it’s pretty inessential. 

    41.    "Eric" (1990)

Intended as an illustrated novella (though most people will have read the text-only version), Pratchett whipped up a plot designed to give artist Josh Kirby plenty to draw. By its nature it’s quite thin. Rincewind is back, and has even less development as a character this time, since his job is just to guide us between eye-catching scenes. It’s fun, but it’s inessential. 

Further reading

Unbelievably the journey doesn’t end there. Obviously there’s the rest of Pratchett’s output, usually set on our depressingly spherical planet. The Bromeliad Trilogy is wonderful, as is the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, and Terry himself considered his 2008 novel Nation to be his masterpiece – he may well be right, it’s an incredible book.

And there’s still more Discworld. The 2011 anthology A Blink Of The Screen collects 32 of Pratchett’s short stories, among them 11 set on Discworld. The jewel of the bunch is ‘The Sea and Little Fishes’, a witches' short story that’s almost long enough to be a novella and is a stellar piece of character writing.

Also worthy of note are the four Science of Discworld books, co-written with scientists Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. The books all have a short Discworld adventure, featuring Rincewind and the wizards, interspersed between science and philosophy chapters. They can be a little dry, but they do a good job of underlining Pratchett’s personal philosophy about the importance and power of stories. The Discworld stuff is funny, too.

And even beyond those, there are the innumerable spin offs – the maps, diaries, art books, encyclopaedias and even a cookbook. Pratchett was obsessive about his work, and nothing went out unless he was happy with it. Even the annual Discworld diaries contained thousands of new words which, though thin on plot, were often heavy on jokes and sometimes illuminating on character. Nanny Oggs Cookbook (1999), for example, is a wonderful feat of character writing, even if you don’t have the nerve to make the “Banana Soup Surprise”, and the children’s spin-off story book, Miss Felicity Beadle’s World of Poo (2012) is completely wonderful. 

That’s plenty to keep you busy.

THE MAGIC OF TERRY PRATCHETT

Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon St, London WC1H 0AH

12th October 2023, 19:30

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/whats-on/magic-terry-pratchett  

Author, comedian and Terry Pratchett fan, Marc Burrows invites audiences to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the landmark comic fantasy Discworld series with this beautiful tribute. 

In 2020, Marc penned the first ever biography of Sir Terry. The book received critical acclaim, won a Locus Award and was embraced by fans. This new, live multimedia show, based on the book, was then created with the full endorsement and support of Narrativia, the company founded to protect and promote the late author’s work in association with his estate. 

The Magic of Terry Pratchett is a comic lecture in which Burrows explores Pratchett's influences, his rise to fame, impact, and unique life, becoming one of the most beloved storytellers of all time. From the national treasure’s days as a school librarian, his time as a trainee journalist to his untimely death in 2015 and in keeping with Pratchett’s own style, the show is a gently comic celebration and exploration of his work. It will also seriously examine his death, and the activism he was involved with toward the end of his life surrounding dementia treatment and the right- to-die; an important part of his story and legacy.

In addition to using the framework of the ‘The Magic of Terry Pratchett’ book, the show will incorporate additional elements of Rob Wilkins’ official biography, ‘Terry Pratchett: A Life in Footnotes’, (A Sunday Times Bestseller) as well as licensed media. 

Sir Terry Pratchett OBE is one of the world’s most widely read authors. Conventions dedicated to his work are held globally every year. His works have been translated into 40 different languages, sold 100 million copies and have been performed on stage on seven continents. John Lloyd was right when he said “of all of the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive”. Pratchett’s short story ‘The Abominable Snow Baby’ was adapted by Channel 4 as a Christmas Day animation in 2021. Sky released a feature film adaptation of his Carnegie Award winning book ‘The Amazing Maurice’ in cinemas in 2022, and ‘Good Omens’, a TV series based on the book Pratchett wrote with Neil Gaiman, will have a second Amazon Prime season in the autumn. 

Marc Burrows often writes on culture and social issues for The Guardian, New Statesman, Big Issue and Independent and his Edinburgh Fringe shows include ‘The Ten Best Songs of All Time’ and ‘Mind Your Head’. Marc’s second book, The London Boys: David Bowie, Marc Bolan and the 60s Teenage Dream was published to considerable acclaim in 2022, and is in the early stages of adaptation into a feature-length documentary. Outside of writing and comedy, Marc plays in the cult punk band The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, regularly performing at the Download, Glastonbury, Bestival and Latitude festivals and touring the UK and US.