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Discworld Companion Books
The Ankh-Morpork Archives, Volume II
Containing material unavailable for twenty years -- this is a comprehensive guide to the capital city of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, getting to the heart of Ankh-Morpork's secrets, societies and guilds.
Ankh-Morpork is a bottomless pit of secrets. It's time to unearth a few more . . .
In the second volume of this confidential guide, brave travellers are made privy to the inner workings of more illustrious Ankh-Morpork societies.
Disabuse yourself of notions of professionalism under which you may hold the City Watch; discover what serious business is undertaken by the Fools' Guild (joking is no laughing matter); and, should you be lucky, achieve true enlightenment through the teachings of Lu-Tze.
One thing's for sure: after you've read this book, Ankh-Morpork's Guilds are going to need to come up with new ways of doing things.
Completely revamped and redesigned, this full-colour book contains material from Discworld Diaries across the decades.
Ankh-Morpork is a bottomless pit of secrets. It's time to unearth a few more . . .
In the second volume of this confidential guide, brave travellers are made privy to the inner workings of more illustrious Ankh-Morpork societies.
Disabuse yourself of notions of professionalism under which you may hold the City Watch; discover what serious business is undertaken by the Fools' Guild (joking is no laughing matter); and, should you be lucky, achieve true enlightenment through the teachings of Lu-Tze.
One thing's for sure: after you've read this book, Ankh-Morpork's Guilds are going to need to come up with new ways of doing things.
Completely revamped and redesigned, this full-colour book contains material from Discworld Diaries across the decades.
- GenresFantasyHumorCollections
252 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 2020
2 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
Terry Pratchett
684 books46.1k followersSir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 28, 2020
Are you a fan of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld? Or, indeed, are you a fairly new fan of Discworld?
Despite the author’s death in 2015, it seems that in 2020 the appetite for ‘Pratchett stuff’ remains undiminished, especially in Britain. To be fair, as the realm of the Discworld extends to over 40 novels, there’s a mine of material out there, even if it is said that anything new from Terry will not happen – there’s no collection of unpublished stories, essays or anything else out there waiting to appear, as I understand it. Despite this, every year the number of fans seems to grow.
With this in mind, and with Christmas approaching, it may not be too much of a surprise to see the appearance of old material repackaged into what I call “coffee-table” books – those large tomes on glossy paper filled with the sort of thing that would go nicely as a Yuletide gift for the fan. And for the Discworld fan, this is their present.
Background first. The Discworld Diaries have been a Discworld staple (and a very popular seller) since 1998. Co-written by Pratchett with Stephen Briggs, they not only offered Discworld enthusiasts a means of counting the days through the year until the next novel was published, but also gave new information about Discworld that was not detailed in the novels, often written by or written with the supervision and guidance of Terry himself.
Filled with prose about the background and history of the societies and people of the Discworld universe that fans would appreciate, and copiously illustrated by Paul Kidby, fans would buy them and keep them as addendums to the novels Terry was writing. Since Terry’s demise they have continued to be published by The Discworld Emporium, but are still going strong today.
Which brings us to this tome. This ‘Discworld Anthology’ combines four editions of the now-quite-rare Discworld Diaries into one volume, Volume II of the anthologies. (It was a bit of a surprise to me in that I didn’t know that there was a Volume I.) The four sets of illustrations are in published chronological order, although not in series sequence.
The first part is from the 1999 Diary, featuring Captain Vimes and the Watch. One of Terry’s set of most enduring characters, I suspect that it will be this that most fans will buy the book for. It includes information on the role of the Watch, a History of the City Watch examples of Arrest Reports and Complaints, memos, laws, crime codes, lists of the equipment issued to the Watch and members and regular suspects of the Watch.
The second section shows us The Fool’s Guild of the 2001 Diary, with the ‘not-scary-at-all’ visage of Dr Whiteface looming throughout. (Warning – this is not part of the book for anyone who suffers with coulrophobia!) There’s a guided tour of the Guild’s headquarters, ‘The House of Mirth’, as well as a history of the Guild and such details as a Guild school curriculum and the Guild rules to be followed outside the Guild walls.
Thirdly we have the Reformed Vampyre Club from the 2003 Diary. The book’s cover shows Mr John Not-A-Vampire-At-All Smith, drinking a beverage that is not blood, and the book gives a welcome to new members of the Guild from him. Again there are details on the rules to follow, the step programme to stop being a vampire, and details of many of the near-immortal characters, each with details of their strange habits.
For Lu-Tse we have “Lu-Tze’s Book of Enlightenment” from the 2008 Diary, a description of the man himself, details of the History Monks a wonderful Floral Clock and words of wisdom from Mrs Cosmopilite, Lu-Tze’s former landlady. The Monks of Discworld are also shown in their various guises.
There’s also a twelve-page Artist’s Archive of various material at the end.
As many of these older diaries (over 20 years old, don’t forget!) are now difficult to get hold of in their original form, this is a satisfactory (and cheaper!) alternative.
The many sketches by Paul Kidby have been upgraded by being added to and digitally remastered, often into a bigger size, to show off the detail. The layout is great, with the pictures given room to breathe. There’s not too many small pictures that you have to squint at to get the details!
However, those expecting drawings in lurid Technicolour may be disappointed. It must be said that most of these images are pencil sketches presented on a beige background, which are lovely and set a uniform tone to the book, but not blazingly outlandish in their use of colour.
The brief details about each character, presumably by Stephen Briggs and Terry, are both amusing and intriguing. Along the way there are little snippets written by Kidby of how the drawings came about. There is an Artist section at the back with various drawings but without comment.
In short, the book does what it is meant to. It’s an attractive-looking book with enough here to entice new readers to the Discworld, and those not totally immersed in the Discworld (yet) will be rushing off to fill the gaps in their knowledge in, but the fans in particular will love it. Even devotees will be given previously unknown details that will have them reaching for their Discworld novels to reread, if not putting away (for safe keeping) their now-archival copies of the original Diaries.
I enjoyed it so much that I went off to find a copy of Volume 1 to go with this one.
Despite the author’s death in 2015, it seems that in 2020 the appetite for ‘Pratchett stuff’ remains undiminished, especially in Britain. To be fair, as the realm of the Discworld extends to over 40 novels, there’s a mine of material out there, even if it is said that anything new from Terry will not happen – there’s no collection of unpublished stories, essays or anything else out there waiting to appear, as I understand it. Despite this, every year the number of fans seems to grow.
With this in mind, and with Christmas approaching, it may not be too much of a surprise to see the appearance of old material repackaged into what I call “coffee-table” books – those large tomes on glossy paper filled with the sort of thing that would go nicely as a Yuletide gift for the fan. And for the Discworld fan, this is their present.
Background first. The Discworld Diaries have been a Discworld staple (and a very popular seller) since 1998. Co-written by Pratchett with Stephen Briggs, they not only offered Discworld enthusiasts a means of counting the days through the year until the next novel was published, but also gave new information about Discworld that was not detailed in the novels, often written by or written with the supervision and guidance of Terry himself.
Filled with prose about the background and history of the societies and people of the Discworld universe that fans would appreciate, and copiously illustrated by Paul Kidby, fans would buy them and keep them as addendums to the novels Terry was writing. Since Terry’s demise they have continued to be published by The Discworld Emporium, but are still going strong today.
Which brings us to this tome. This ‘Discworld Anthology’ combines four editions of the now-quite-rare Discworld Diaries into one volume, Volume II of the anthologies. (It was a bit of a surprise to me in that I didn’t know that there was a Volume I.) The four sets of illustrations are in published chronological order, although not in series sequence.
The first part is from the 1999 Diary, featuring Captain Vimes and the Watch. One of Terry’s set of most enduring characters, I suspect that it will be this that most fans will buy the book for. It includes information on the role of the Watch, a History of the City Watch examples of Arrest Reports and Complaints, memos, laws, crime codes, lists of the equipment issued to the Watch and members and regular suspects of the Watch.
The second section shows us The Fool’s Guild of the 2001 Diary, with the ‘not-scary-at-all’ visage of Dr Whiteface looming throughout. (Warning – this is not part of the book for anyone who suffers with coulrophobia!) There’s a guided tour of the Guild’s headquarters, ‘The House of Mirth’, as well as a history of the Guild and such details as a Guild school curriculum and the Guild rules to be followed outside the Guild walls.
Thirdly we have the Reformed Vampyre Club from the 2003 Diary. The book’s cover shows Mr John Not-A-Vampire-At-All Smith, drinking a beverage that is not blood, and the book gives a welcome to new members of the Guild from him. Again there are details on the rules to follow, the step programme to stop being a vampire, and details of many of the near-immortal characters, each with details of their strange habits.
For Lu-Tse we have “Lu-Tze’s Book of Enlightenment” from the 2008 Diary, a description of the man himself, details of the History Monks a wonderful Floral Clock and words of wisdom from Mrs Cosmopilite, Lu-Tze’s former landlady. The Monks of Discworld are also shown in their various guises.
There’s also a twelve-page Artist’s Archive of various material at the end.
As many of these older diaries (over 20 years old, don’t forget!) are now difficult to get hold of in their original form, this is a satisfactory (and cheaper!) alternative.
The many sketches by Paul Kidby have been upgraded by being added to and digitally remastered, often into a bigger size, to show off the detail. The layout is great, with the pictures given room to breathe. There’s not too many small pictures that you have to squint at to get the details!
However, those expecting drawings in lurid Technicolour may be disappointed. It must be said that most of these images are pencil sketches presented on a beige background, which are lovely and set a uniform tone to the book, but not blazingly outlandish in their use of colour.
The brief details about each character, presumably by Stephen Briggs and Terry, are both amusing and intriguing. Along the way there are little snippets written by Kidby of how the drawings came about. There is an Artist section at the back with various drawings but without comment.
In short, the book does what it is meant to. It’s an attractive-looking book with enough here to entice new readers to the Discworld, and those not totally immersed in the Discworld (yet) will be rushing off to fill the gaps in their knowledge in, but the fans in particular will love it. Even devotees will be given previously unknown details that will have them reaching for their Discworld novels to reread, if not putting away (for safe keeping) their now-archival copies of the original Diaries.
I enjoyed it so much that I went off to find a copy of Volume 1 to go with this one.
August 22, 2021
LOL bits from the greatest and functiestoornissen author this side of the sixties
February 22, 2021
A second compilation of older diaries and almanacs with artwork.
A good giggle for existing fans but will not convert others.
A good giggle for existing fans but will not convert others.
October 30, 2020
Well of course once I started, I read it straight through! Such lovely quotes, beautiful illustrations, that show the, er, persons/creatures/Nobby exactly as I visualise them. A real delight, thanks again Discworld Emporium for your prompt and delightfully packed parcel!
June 21, 2022
Of course this was a solid 5, or where you expecting any less? Greatest complementary part to volume I, because we get to see the other Guilds and organisations of Discworld. The City Watch is well known in the books and the additional information provided helps you get a better picture. I thoroughly enjoyed The Fool’s Guild, I haven’t finished reading all the books, but they are rarely mentioned and I only remember they being important in one story, so it was great to know more about them. The reformed vampyres is an organisation I have yet to encounter in the books, I know they exist, I just don’t know how exactly they got to Ankh, so this was new to me as well. And finally we have the History Monks, who I love and adore because they are hilarious and so very peaceful. Loved every bit.
January 1, 2021
It was great to revisit this material from the diaries of the 2000's, and there was quite a bit there which I didn't even remember! It's also good to see Paul Kidby's artwork blown up a little from the small sizes in which it appears in the diaries as you get to see a lot more detail. A good collection for the fan, especially if you missed out on getting the diaries from 1998-2008. (Obviously, this is volume 2, so you may wish to look at volume 1 as well)
July 31, 2022
Another great companion book for Discworld lovers. The book is beautifully designed and with nice sized illustrations. While I love the City Watch (Sam Vimes is my second favorite character after Granny Weatherwax), I most appreciated the chapter on the Fools' Guild which was less fleshed out in the main series.
November 24, 2020
What's not to love? Amazing artwork by Paul Kidby and the imagination of Terry Pratchett.
June 27, 2021
Another volume of the diary bits. Rated for PTerry fans, if you aren't a fan don't bother as you need to know the books for it to make sense.
Pretty sure I didn't spot all the jokes... :)
Pretty sure I didn't spot all the jokes... :)
February 9, 2022
hihi...I'm now fully educated in the Way of Mrs. C.
January 19, 2023
I enjoyed learning a little more about Discworld.
June 5, 2022
Po dlouhé době další kniha ze Zeměplochy a můj návrat sem na Goodreads. Příjemné počtení, i když některé části mě tolik nebavily.
April 8, 2024
The 2nd volume in the Ankh-Morpork Archives and this time new guilds, new religions, new fun information, and more!
A big big thank you to my hubby for getting me this book for Christmas! This was just SO high on my list of books I wanted to have and I finally got it~!
I just LOVE the DiscWorld series (well especially the earlier ones) and I am so happy with these Archives books in which we get some extra information on the world. Last time we got various guilds and the UU, this time it is the Watch, 1 guild, and one filled with (hopefully) reformed vampires, and the Lu-Tze religion (/cult?).
The first part, well, I really enjoyed reading it because I just love the Watch so much and all the characters that are in it. I also love that everyone is allowed in the Watch. Not just men, but also trolls, women, and anything in between. Everyone. I guess with such a job as the Watch you need everyone you can get, haha. We learn a lot about the Watch, some new to me some old. I really enjoyed seeing the characters I love so much and read more about them. And some of their cases. The pigeons and how to not lose them to gargoyles.
We also read about the Fools’ Guild, not a favourite of mine, but hey if you have a fear for clowns (and hate mimes) I guess that is logical. Still, it was a fun read despite me being terrified most of the time. I did love reading the thoughts of the illustrators on the guild and that one indeed was unlocked a new fear, haha. There were some new things about the guild, some I had forgotten but now remember, and some stuff I already knew. I also find it hilarious that the Fools’ Guild felt, at times at least, more like the mob rather than something meant to bring laughter.
I really loved reading about the Reformed Vampyres/Vampires! They are such a fun aspect in the Discworld and I loved reading about how they were reformed, plans for new names (which made me laugh so much), about food, work ideas, and several more things including some talks with vampires. It was just so much fun to read, definitely one of my favourite parts!
And the last, and maybe not entirely my favourite, but still a lot of fun, we talk about Lu-Tze. Aka enlightenment. Aka hippies in some cases. This one was the one that came with the most surprises given that it has been even longer since I last read about the Lu-Tze religion. So while not entirely my favourite part, I did love all the information we learned. From the wisdoms of an older lady and how a whole religion came to form around that, to the leader of the religion, to so many other aspects. Plus, of course, also the counterpart of it, which were definitely hippies. XD
I loved all the information we gained per part. From quotes to instructions to fun little tidbits to wonderful big illustrations featuring prominent characters. And not only that, between each part is a bit from Paul Kidby and Stephen Briggs along with a quote from Terry Pratchett. I just loved those bits, they gave some more insight in the progress/process.
All in all, I really loved it and would highly recommend it to all, though I am also sad because I just miss the Discworld so much. Yes, we can go back to the older books and enjoy books like this, but there won’t be any fresh material. No more new adventures.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
A big big thank you to my hubby for getting me this book for Christmas! This was just SO high on my list of books I wanted to have and I finally got it~!
I just LOVE the DiscWorld series (well especially the earlier ones) and I am so happy with these Archives books in which we get some extra information on the world. Last time we got various guilds and the UU, this time it is the Watch, 1 guild, and one filled with (hopefully) reformed vampires, and the Lu-Tze religion (/cult?).
The first part, well, I really enjoyed reading it because I just love the Watch so much and all the characters that are in it. I also love that everyone is allowed in the Watch. Not just men, but also trolls, women, and anything in between. Everyone. I guess with such a job as the Watch you need everyone you can get, haha. We learn a lot about the Watch, some new to me some old. I really enjoyed seeing the characters I love so much and read more about them. And some of their cases. The pigeons and how to not lose them to gargoyles.
We also read about the Fools’ Guild, not a favourite of mine, but hey if you have a fear for clowns (and hate mimes) I guess that is logical. Still, it was a fun read despite me being terrified most of the time. I did love reading the thoughts of the illustrators on the guild and that one indeed was unlocked a new fear, haha. There were some new things about the guild, some I had forgotten but now remember, and some stuff I already knew. I also find it hilarious that the Fools’ Guild felt, at times at least, more like the mob rather than something meant to bring laughter.
I really loved reading about the Reformed Vampyres/Vampires! They are such a fun aspect in the Discworld and I loved reading about how they were reformed, plans for new names (which made me laugh so much), about food, work ideas, and several more things including some talks with vampires. It was just so much fun to read, definitely one of my favourite parts!
And the last, and maybe not entirely my favourite, but still a lot of fun, we talk about Lu-Tze. Aka enlightenment. Aka hippies in some cases. This one was the one that came with the most surprises given that it has been even longer since I last read about the Lu-Tze religion. So while not entirely my favourite part, I did love all the information we learned. From the wisdoms of an older lady and how a whole religion came to form around that, to the leader of the religion, to so many other aspects. Plus, of course, also the counterpart of it, which were definitely hippies. XD
I loved all the information we gained per part. From quotes to instructions to fun little tidbits to wonderful big illustrations featuring prominent characters. And not only that, between each part is a bit from Paul Kidby and Stephen Briggs along with a quote from Terry Pratchett. I just loved those bits, they gave some more insight in the progress/process.
All in all, I really loved it and would highly recommend it to all, though I am also sad because I just miss the Discworld so much. Yes, we can go back to the older books and enjoy books like this, but there won’t be any fresh material. No more new adventures.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
October 22, 2022
Vždycky sa rada vraciam do sveta Zeměplochy, hoci každou ďalšou knihou je mi jasné, že práve ona môže byť tá posledná (keďže Terry Pratchett už nežije a mne stále chýba).
No a tentoraz sa dozvedáme niečo o Mestskej hliadke (Jéééj! Elánius <3 !!!), Cechu šaškov a klanou, reformovaných upíroch a mníchoch.
Je to klasický Pratchett - poučné, vtipné, premyslené a doplnené krásnymi Kidbyho kresbami. Odporúčam pre každého, kto sa chce o svete Zeměplochy dozvedieť o trošku viac, než je v hlavnej sérii.
No a tentoraz sa dozvedáme niečo o Mestskej hliadke (Jéééj! Elánius <3 !!!), Cechu šaškov a klanou, reformovaných upíroch a mníchoch.
Je to klasický Pratchett - poučné, vtipné, premyslené a doplnené krásnymi Kidbyho kresbami. Odporúčam pre každého, kto sa chce o svete Zeměplochy dozvedieť o trošku viac, než je v hlavnej sérii.
September 17, 2022
More fun facts/writeups and pictures from the journals I never got to read. Loved it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews