While going about helping hill dwellers with cures, advice, midwifery, and toenail paring for the elderly, Tiffany feels that the ring of stones on the hill is emitting a sinister tremor. The small blue Feegles in the woods feel it too and agree to keep a watch. Meanwhile, Geoffrey, son of Lord Swivel, has decided that the country squire life is not for him. He stands up to his father and sets off in his goat-drawn cart to the land of Lancre, where all the best witches are trained.

This well-populated adventure says goodbye to one of Terry's best-known characters, both showing that death is a natural process and precipitating a flood of chaos. Amid the country funeral scenes we are told that we should not mourn but cherish good memories. I confess to getting a bit teary-eyed. Anyway, Tiffany moves up a step in the pecking order and for one so young she suddenly faces a great deal of responsibility, including fighting off a sparkly, glamorous, malicious elf queen.

The Discworld has changed since the Lords and Ladies last stepped beyond the bounds of Faerie. Goblins now have jobs as train drivers, and so do second sons of farmers. Prosperity and travel haven't changed everything, of course. In the eminently practical footnotes we're advised to wear a few pairs of flannelette undergarments before getting on a broomstick. Tiffany is reminded that being a witch is not about casting charms and wearing costume jewelry, rather it's doing an old person's washing for them, concocting cough medicine and sewing back a lumberjack's sawn-off foot. When magic is needed, though, she'll have to fight for her life. The elves hate iron, so they will try to destroy the railway and all it represents.

In this faster-moving, connected Discworld, we find that rulers no longer hold total power and wealth, and the small people, the small things, have begun to matter. I love the neat illustrations at the head of every chapter, so even newcomers will be able to visualise the inhabitants. THE SHEPHERD'S CROWN is quite as good a place to start reading Discworld as it is to finish, and I know we will be re- reading all of Terry Pratchett's lively, enchanting books for many years to come.

Book Summary