A Hat Full of Sky

Terry Pratchett (author)

Doubleday, UK: 2004; 350pp

ISBN: 0385607369

Genres: adventure, fantasy, humour, satire

Issues: identity

Tiffany Aching, eleven years old, is a witch. Being a witch, as she soon discovers, is rarely about magic of the kind that involves strange ingredients or incantations and the cauldron is generally used for cooking food rather than potions. Being a witch is mostly about doing the things that other people don't realise need doing – trimming an old lady's toenails because she can't reach them; washing the elderly, helping mothers give birth and sounding wise when the locals aren't quite sure what to do. Mostly it's about those rarest of commodities, observation and common sense and a sense of responsibility.

At first Tiffany finds this rather disappointing but she gradually comes to realise that although a witch can, at need, wield power that others cannot, more often than not it's because she understands people and how to get them to do what is needed. But when the Hiver comes looking for Tiffany, she suddenly realises that this isn't something with which other people can help her. Even the other witches, the older women, can only advise and assist. In the end it is Tiffany who must find a way to send the Hiver on its way and doing so may cost her more than she is willing to pay.

Terry Pratchett is well known for his gift for creating madcap nonsense that makes a bizarre kind of sense. His characters are wonderfully eccentric and in A Hat Full of Sky several of his greatest are present, including Granny Weatherwax, the closest thing the witches will ever have to a leader, and the Nac Mac Feegle, for whom Tiffany is the Hag o' the Hills. Strong personalities (and plenty of strong female role models), little blue men with no morals and light fingers, tales of the unexpected set on a world that is carried on the back of four elephants standing on the shell of a giant turtle – what more could any imaginative reader want? Pratchett is always good for light relief and escapism but watch out for the strong lines of irony and satire that gallop through his work; his cynicism about human nature is boundless and will poke you in the ribs if you're not paying attention.

'Witches were a bit like cats. They didn't much like one another's company but they did like to know where all the other witches were, just in case they needed them. And what you might need them for was to tell you, as a friend, that you were beginning to cackle.' (p19)

Also about Tiffany Aching: I Shall Wear Midnight