How Did Discworld Get to 40? (40th Anniversary Special)

24 November 2023 marks forty years since Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic was first published. That’s right – it’s Discworld’s fortieth birthday! To celebrate, join Pratchat producer and co-host Ben McKenzie as he – and a bunch of special guests – try to figure out why that book, and moreso the Discworld series it started, have endured for so long.

This episode is something of an experiment for Pratchat, and as Ben says during the episode, this can’t possibly cover all the reasons why the series is so beloved. We want to hear about your favourite Discworld books, and what the Discworld means to you. And we’d love to know what you thought of this episode, and whether you’d like to hear more like it in the future! Tell us via the hashtag #PratchatRuby on social media, or get in touch via email or our subscriber Discord.

Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to this episode:

• Rachel and Jason of the newsletter Better Than a Poke in the Eye (previously known as Discworld Monthly). You can read their thoughts on the fortieth anniversary here: “Celebrating 40 years of Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic”.
• Marc Burrows, author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett and creator of the one-man stage show of the same name. Marc is also the guest host for the final episode of Desert Island Discworld, also released on the fortieth anniversary. (Note that it’s about The Shepherd’s Crown.)
• Adam Ford, poet. Find his zines in his Gumroad shop.
• Danny (aka Molokov) from Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld Convention. The next one is in Adelaide in July 2024. Hopefully we’ll be there!
• Ian Banks.
• Aaron from The Compleat Discography podcast.
• Pratchat’s own Elizabeth Flux.
• Francine Carrel and Joanna Hagan of The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret. We appeared on their recent episode “Picture Books and Board Games” talking about Where’s My Cow? and the Discworld board games; it also includes an interview with David Brashaw of Backspindle Games.

Our original discussion of The Colour of Magic can be found in #Pratchat14, “City-State Lampoon’s Disc-Wide Vacation”, from December 2018.

Our December episode will be #Pratchat73, discussing the stories of Father Christmas’s Fake Beard. But we are hoping to bring you one more little extra before the year is out.

Want to help us get to every Pratchett book? You can subscribe for as little as $2 a month – and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! (Sorry.) Check out our Support Us page for details.