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Maskerade

Maskerade

'I thought: opera, how hard can it be? Songs. Pretty girls dancing. Nice scenery. Lots of people handing over cash. Got to be better than the cut-throat world of yoghurt, I thought. Now everwhere I go there's...'

Death, to be precise. And plenty of it. In unpleasant variations. This isn't real life. This isn't even cheesemongering. It's opera. Where the music matters and where an opera house is being terrorised by a man in evening dress with a white mask, lurking in the shadows, occasionally killing people, and most worryingly, sending little notes, writing maniacal laughter with five exclamation marks. Opera can do that to a man. In such circumstances, life has obviously reached that desperate point where the wrong thing to do has to be the right thing to do...

Reviews

  • 'Pratchett is as funny as Wodehouse and as witty as Waugh'

    Independent

  • 'The great Terry Pratchett, whose wit is metaphysical, who creates an energetic and lively secondary world, who has a multifarious genius for strong parody ... who deals with death with startling originality. Who writes amazing sentences'

    A.S. Byatt, New York Times

  • 'Like Jonathan Swift, Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own, and like Swift he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable'

    The Times

  • 'Cracking dialogue, compelling illogic and unchained whimsy...Pratchett has a subject and a style that is very much his own'

    Sunday Times

  • 'Entertaining and gloriously funny'

    Chicago Tribune

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About the Author

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett was the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983. In all, he was the author of over fifty bestselling books. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. He died in March 2015. terrypratchettbooks.com

Terry Pratchett

Read more

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Games & activities

Make a Terry Pratchett-inspired banana milkshake

Sir Terry Pratchett’s favourite drink was a banana daiquiri, so to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Carpet People and Pratchett’s birthday on 28 April, we’re making a terrific banana milkshake to toast the occasions!
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Extracts

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Tiffany wants to be a witch when she grows up. A proper one, with a pointy hat. And flying, she’s always dreamed of flying (though it’s cold up there, you have to wear really thick pants, two layers). Read an extract from The Wee Free Men, the first book in the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett.
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Meet the heroes of The Wee Free Men

Meet Tiffany and the Wee Free Men. Tiffany wants to be a witch, and the Wee Free Men, are, well - a horde of unruly fairies. Together they are the brave new heroes in The Wee Free Men, a spellbinding story from Terry Pratchett. Full of fierce, flying elves, deadly dogs and not forgetting the evil Queen of the Fairies, Tiffany and the Wee Free Men must battle it out to bring Tiffany’s brother home. Here’s everything you need to know about them.

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