It's finally here the Autobiography

[Who's Wee Dug]

Looks really good and in three editions. Main edition, Deluxe and Super Deluxe.

https://penguin-group.msgfocus.com/q/1frEdFRP1d1Gbm1aEhD8u8A/wv

A LIFE WITH FOOTNOTES*​

*THE OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY​

​

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

The prices Hardback480 Pages / Published: 29/09/2022


Pre-order£25.00 £20.00 Hardback pre order price

Pre-order£40.00Hardback

Pre-order£80.00Hardback

 

[raisindot]

Rant.

Okay, I absolutely love the man and his work. and I'm guilty of buying a bunch of side books (The Discworld Atlas, two of the Companions, the two Ankh Morpork diaries collections) where he didn't have a great deal of involvement in their writing. But I feel the amount of necrocashingin by his former collaborators and publishers over the past few years is getting out of hand. It seems like everyone who either worked with him or had a mercantile partnership with him has put out some kind of book where he had little or no involvement. Or the endless number of republishings of his books with different covers. Or the need to release new, vastly inferior aubiobook readings while taking the classic Planers and Briggs off the market.

And these 'special editions" seem like the worst kind of greedy exploitation. I really wonder whether Pterry would have agreed that people should pay much more to get fancier paper and covers and pretty insigificant Easter eggs.

Okay, rant off.

 

[RathDarkblade]

For what it's worth, raisindot, I agree with you. The first thing that came into my head, when I saw "Main Edition", "Deluxe" and "Super Deluxe" was: what's the difference? Why is one so much more expensive than the other? What makes "Deluxe" worth 40 Pounds, or "Super Deluxe" worth 80 Pounds? *shrug*

Yes, I'm obviously interested. Yes, I would like to read this book. But I'm also confused.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

For what it's worth, raisindot, I agree with you. The first thing that came into my head, when I saw "Main Edition", "Deluxe" and "Super Deluxe" was: what's the difference? Why is one so much more expensive than the other? What makes "Deluxe" worth 40 Pounds, or "Super Deluxe" worth 80 Pounds? *shrug*

Yes, I'm obviously interested. Yes, I would like to read this book. But I'm also confused.

About what Rath, if you check out the link for a full description it explains the difference between them, extra content etc. I think I will get the middle for diddle one, as £80 is too much for the super one for me I can live without the drawing.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Sigh. £1 is about two of our dollars, so as the price-per-Pound grows, it grows even more for us poor provincials. =( This is why I always try to be extra careful about what I'm getting.

I don't know if there's much difference between £20 and £40, but there's definitely a difference between 40 and 80 Ecksian prawns (or dollars).

As for the link -- fair enough. *nods* I simply don't know what all that fancy paper etc. means.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Whatever way you look at it or them squint. it just doubles each time.

 

[=Tamar]

Once you get past the fluff, the primary difference is one interview that i not included in the basic edition.

Incidentally, Sir Terry did have a lot to do with the text in the original Discworld Diaries. The Diary Collections have that text, so they count as Pratchett work.

 

[raisindot]

Once you get past the fluff, the primary difference is one interview that i not included in the basic edition.

My guess is that someone will post the interview online somewhere at some point, saving everyone the need to pay extra for it.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

And there is also the self portrait as well.

 

[RathDarkblade]

And there is also the self portrait as well.

As Raisindot said - I'm guessing that someone will scan the self-portrait and put it online at some point.

People are scallywags.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I won't be buying that edition.

 

[Tonyblack]

I've just pre-ordered the Kindle edition for £12.99

 

[Quatermass]

Sigh. £1 is about two of our dollars, so as the price-per-Pound grows, it grows even more for us poor provincials. =( This is why I always try to be extra careful about what I'm getting.

I don't know if there's much difference between £20 and £40, but there's definitely a difference between 40 and 80 Ecksian prawns (or dollars).

As for the link -- fair enough. *nods* I simply don't know what all that fancy paper etc. means.

Hey, as Ben Croshaw once put it, it's the 'Nice Beaches Tax' for us.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Which is doubly unfair, because I don't live near any beaches. =P The nearest beach to me is St Kilda Beach, which is notorious for after-hours over-drinking, shooting-up and sometimes violence. It's gotten so bad in the past few years that the local council banned drinking alcohol there -- and throughout the St Kilda area -- during the entire summer (1 November-31 March).

it doesn't stop people drinking alcohol -- what government-mandated measure ever does? -- but at least it doesn't make the TV news anymore. *shrug*

 

[RathDarkblade]

So, anyway ............. about 18 months after this book was first published, it finally dawned on us in Fourecks. (Yeah, seems about right for us poor ol' provincials. The original was probably drooled poison on by the giant spiders, or shredded to bits by the vicious dropping bears). =P

So, I'm reading this and making notes for future authors to read (like Bob Monkhouse), and giggling like mad at the funny bits. Like this one (from pg. 63):

...One day, as he trawled the boxes [of UK and US science fiction magazines -Ed.], Terry was joined in the hut by a gentleman whose haircut and narrow-eyed demeanour seemed to suggest a plain-clothes policeman on duty. 'What's he doing in here?' the man immediately wanted to know, gesturing at the minor on the floor.

The woman with the knitting replied, magnificently, and to Terry's lasting delight, 'Onny swar key marley ponce, Geoffrey.'* The policeman had no answer to that and left...

___________________
The French maxim 'honi soit qui mal y pense', here translated into the Bucks dialect, and meaning, 'shame on the one who thinks ill of it'.

I couldn't help giggling, especially because this happened at The Little Library, which stocked sci-fi magazines not far from boxes of soft-core pornography - hence the plod's ire. =P

As for the French maxim: I'm sure that all UKians here will have heard it many, many times, but for anyone here who's wondering "What the heck...?", this is also the motto of the Order of the Garter, one of the oldest order of British knights. In fact, it dates back to 1348, and was instituted by Edward III, sometime towards the start of the Hundred Years' War.

I'd also like to know if knowledge of this phrase is still as common as it seems to have been when Terry was a teenager. Is it? Just curious!