I Shall Wear Midnight

Terry Pratchett (author)

Doubleday, Random House, UK: September 2010

ISBN: 9780385611077

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: differences, friendship, identity, tolerance

Tiffany Aching, 16, is a witch - the kind that wears a pointy hat and rides a broom (as low to the ground as she can manage, not being too fond of heights). Contrary to popular myth, however, being a witch has a great deal more to do with nursing the ill and arthritic, sorting out fights and making sure that all is running as it should in her part of the world. A good witch, in fact, uses magic as little as possible. Which is all very well, in theory. But something, somewhere - something nasty and dark and malicious - is stirring up all the old fears that lead to witch burnings and irrational attacks on harmless old ladies. Can Tiffany stop the persecution before it kills her? Will her friends, her community, her family, even, remember who she really is, rather than the evil stories being spread? And can she stop the Mac Feegles from complicating things beyond belief?

Terry Pratchett's capacity to take the reader on a madcap ride through a wilderness of narrative has given him a huge fan base. I Shall Wear Midnight is one of his best, combining as it does an astute understanding of human nature and all its foibles and a range of characters that adds an occasionally thought-provoking depth to the story. Pratchett's love of language (wit and wordplay of all varieties, interesting vocabulary and a great ear for dialogue) will charm the more sophisticated reader, making this a story that both dances in the imagination and begs to be read aloud.

The 38th in Pratchett's Discworld series, this is one of Pratchett's most entertaining and appealing novels. An apparently simple story about an inexperienced witch who finds herself confronted with an ancient evil, I Shall Wear Midnight is much more and is therefore a story that bears revisiting.