Here’s the former press officer of the Central Electricity Generating Board, South Western Region, with his name in lights – Terry Pratchett at the peak of his powers. I thought maybe a maypole,” said Mr. Tulip reflectively. “An’ then a display of country dancing, land tillage under the three-field system, several plagues, and if my –ing hand ain’t too tired the invention of the –ing horse collar”

Reread 2020: So much of Pratchett's satire has hit home in this read. Pratchett was a journalist at the beginning of his writing career so it's fun to see him compare investigative journalism (broadsheets) vs people pleasers (tabloids) in this novel about the first Discworld printing press. He starts a newspaper and tries to figure out what happened to Vetinari. He unravels the nefarious plot. He prints his stories without regard to his own safety. He is dedicated to the TRUTH. Unfortunately, many obstacles arise between William and the TRUTH. Most of those obstacles are created by his fellow men: business rivals and lawyers, the Watch and the ruthless criminals. Fortunately, William is as tenacious and arrogant in his quest for knowledge as the countless generations of aristocrats on his family tree had been in their pursuit of money and power. He is a true son of his family after all, just as arrogant and loud and relentless as his father. Only his goals and methods are different. And his TRUTH is different too. Another issue is the speed at which things occur. William DeWorde goes from hand-carving a monthly newsletter for five at-home benefactors to running a newspaper complete with moveable type press within a week. Pratchett works too hard to pile on absurdity after absurdity as the newspaper takes off in ways that William can't expect and doesn't prepare for. Pratchett works too hard to make a few funny observances by compresing the timeline and making the story feel a bit rushed at points.When Mr. Pin finally gets out of the basement, out of habit more than anything else, he tries to strangle William, who accidentally runs him through with a paper spike.

Gardeners like Mr. Wintler and his unusual vegetables are a common theme in local community newspapers - particularly around fall fair time. The unstated sexual component adds the twist, especially when William de Worde is relieved to see that Mr. Wintler's latest offering is only a parsnip shaped like a long nose. In previous centuries before sexual organs could be written about plainly, authors used the nose as a euphemism for a penis. This was particularly popular in Russian literature after the publication of Lawrence Stern's novel, Tristam Shandy which used this idea. The most famous example of this is the short story by Nikolai Gogol, " The Nose". Later in the book, Sacharissa knees Mr. Tulip firmly in "the place that made a parsnip a very funny thing indeed." - often euphemistically called the "produce section". The Disorganiser which reveals Lord De Worde. Nixon originally denied the allegations he faced but was exposed after taped conversations were discovered, revealing him to be in charge. And of course the myriad "expletive deleted" euphemism of the Nixon transcripts finds its Discworld home in the frequent recourse to " -ing".... Pravda (Russian for "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, formerly the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. William uses the gems on Mr. Pin's person to help the Dwarves buy a new press, and then confronts his father, Lord de Worde, at his mansion, almost getting captured. Otto Chriek, his vampire iconographer, saves him though, despite nearly falling victim to his species' bloodlust, and lets Lord de Worde go. I have a favorable bias toward the story of someone stumbling into the business of printed news. This story isn't exactly analogous to my own. I decided to start a magazine when the concept of magazines already existed. William de Worde managed to invent the newspaper without even trying. Terry Pratchett does a wonderful job of showing the form evolve in fast-motion.William de Worde, a ne'er do well noble who is ashamed of his noble heritage, has until now made his living by painstakingly collecting news and sending off a sort of newsletter to foreign peoples of import who are willing to pay him for it. Then some dwarfs roll into Ankh-Morpork with something called a printing press, and suddenly, what if they printed a bunch of them and sold them for like, fifty cents? And maybe hired some people to sell them? And maybe pay some people to tell them things that are going on in town? Like bake sales and fires and robberies and whatnot. I know that many feel loyalty to the excellent work that Nigel Palmer and Stephen Briggs did in the past, reading the Discworld books. I, like many, felt that disconnect when Stephen took over from Nigel, and I took a few books to become comfortable with the change. When William de Worde meets with the civic leaders, Mr. Slant says that "Mr. Scrope has sent a note...It appears he is ill". William's response is to say, "Was it signed by his mother." A reference to schools requiring a note for absence signed by parent or guardian so that the student couldn't just be faking it (which obviously Mr. Scrope is doing). Parts of the novel are pure Monty Python material : ... no, that’s not it. No, sir, I know that’s not it. Because it’s a parrot, that’s why. You’ve taught it to bark and you’ve painted “DoG” on the side of it but it’s still a parrot ...” Born Terence David John Pratchett, Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe.

The sequence involving a class of magic students at the Conjurers Guild below de Worde's office is a direct pastiche of one of British comedic magician Tommy Cooper's routines. The theme of this novel is the TRUTH. And journalism. And if there is any connection between the two.

Mr. Tulip used his head all the time, from a distance of about eight inches" - a reference to the standard head butting tactic of this type of streetwise thug.

The headline for the newspaper "The Truth Shall Make Ye Free" is from the bible - John 8:32: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Sacharissa is dismissive of the motto saying, "I think its just a quote." Later on as things get more complex a type setting error changes this line to "The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret" and still later it becomes "The Truth Shall Make Ye Fred".One thing William discovers early on is that people LIKE seeing their names (and ages, for some reason) in the paper, and soon he is overwhelmed with potential "news" items like which was the coldest winter ever and vegetables that resemble body parts. Foul Ole Ron says, "Gottle o' geer, gottle o' geer," which is a reference to the old ventriloquist routine. When they wanted to demonstrate how good they were they included the phrase "bottle of beer" as part of their act. Since it is impossible to pronounce the 'B' without moving your lips, the phrase comes out as "gottle of geer". For someone like Foul Ron who has trouble putting two coherent words together beyond "millennium hand and shrimp" this seems an appropriate line.