Terry Pratchett sold over 100 million books worldwide, was translated into forty languages, and became one of the most widely loved writers of the twentieth century. His work, including the Discworld series, is often praised for its wit and invention, but less often examined for what it really is: one of the most sustained and coherent philosophical projects in modern popular fiction.
From the author of The Magic of Terry Pratchett, the Locus Award-winning first biography of Sir Terry, Marc Burrows new book, The Terry Pratchett Reader’s Guide, will get a launch at the upcoming Discworld Convention before its general release on 30th August, a guide that takes Pratchett seriously as a literary figure without taking the fun out of him.
Moving chronologically from his earliest short stories through to 1999’s The Fifth Elephant, this first volume charts how an angry young journalist from Beaconsfield turned genre parody into something far more ambitious: a body of work concerned with belief, power, identity, and what happens when enough people believe the same thing at once.
A second volume will cover The Truth (2000) through to Pratchett’s final novel, The Shepherd’s Crown.
A reader’s guide written for readers, not academics, complete with jokes and footnotes of its own, each chapter explores a book’s themes, cultural context, and place in Pratchett’s development, tracing the connections between the man, the work, and the world around him.
Whether you’ve read every Discworld novel multiple times or are wondering where to begin, the Readers Guide is a new way to understand what Pratchett achieved: a serious meditation on justice, belief, and what it means to be human – with terrible puns, endless cups of tea, and the occasional joke about bums!
The 14th International Discworld Convention takes place 7th – 10th August 2026 at the Leonardo Hotel, Hinckley Island, Leicestershire. A gathering of Terry Pratchett fans to celebrate his superb catalogue of work, in particular, the Discworld, Convention is held in the UK every two years and is organised by fans, for fans. It is a true amalgamation of love for the author we all miss.
In 2026, prepare for melodrama, superstition, witches, ballet dancers, opera singers, and at least one ghost. That’s right, get your fanciest cosplay ready for the ‘Maskerade’.
Guests include Rhianna Pratchett, an award-winning writer whose work spans video games, comics, prose, film and television; Stephen Briggs, who was friends with Sir Terry Pratchett and collaborated on more than 20 publishing projects; Diane Duane, a longtime friend of Sir Terry Pratchett, who has been a science fiction and fantasy novelist and screenwriter for almost fifty years; and many more, such as Phil Masters, who co-wrote the GURPS Discworld game with Sir Terry Pratchett.
Marc Burrows is a journalist, comedian and award-winning first biographer of Sir Terry (The Magic of Terry Pratchett, published in 2020), who’s returning to Discworld Convention to do stand-up, answer questions, drink drinks, and sell books (“please buy a book!” he asks).
Marc is a veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, a touring comic and a full-time author with numerous biographies to his name, mostly about music. His new reader’s guides go in-depth on all 60ish Pratchett novels, and beyond.
This will be his third DWCon, and sees him break a personal rule of never going to Hinckley if he can possibly avoid it, having grown up five miles down the road in the blighted historic town of Earl Shilton (although it was a village back then, before it got ideas above its station).
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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