By Sir Terry Pratchett

If you were to look at my bookshelf, you would see that Hat Full of Sky is the only one that is in paperback. This is because I lost my hardback copy while watching a street show at Covent Garden. Sometime later I went to get a new copy book was the only time I met Sir Terry Pratchett.

He was doing a book signing at Covent Garden, testing the book Making Money. I bought a copy of the book, ‘Hats Full of Sky,’ and stood in line for him to sign it. When we got to the front of the line, I got shy but asked him what his favourite part of being an author and he said, “to meet all the pretty girls,” and we moved on. I still have that copy.

“A real witch never casually steps out of her body.  Leaving it empty. Eleven-year-old Tiffany does. And there’s something just waiting for a handy body to take over. Something ancient and horrible, which can’t die…

Wise, witty and wonderful, Hat Full of Sky is Terry Pratchett’s second novel about Tiffany and the Wee Free Men,  the rowdiest, toughest, smelliest bunch of fairies ever. They’ll fight anything. And even they might not be enough to save Tiffany…”

My spoiler-free review is this: if you liked the Wee Free Men, then you will enjoy Hat Full of Sky. This book creates a wider world and takes a better look at what it means to learn to be a witch. Also, I forgot to add this in my last post: as far as I know, there are no read-along podcasts for this series, but The Compleat Discography has an episode for every Discworld book.

Now I have three thoughts.

To start things off, I would like to talk about Granny Aching and what it means to be a witch. I know that all three flashbacks are in the previous book, but in this book, we see what witchcraft looks like in the Discworld. We see that Granny Aching does little bits of her magic. She goes out to find lost sheep, bringing those sheep back from the brink of death and even saving the Baron’s hunting dog. and as a witch, she never takes payment for her work.

Secondly, I would like to talk about Annagramma Hawkins and the younger witches.  This is the first time I’ve encountered a younger generation of Discworld witches since the book Lords and Ladies, but interestingly, Annagramma has told the others that they need to do actual magic to move magic forward. It is unsaid if the rituals they are performing do anything. This and the fact that they wear a lot of special or occult jewellery. Maybe this is a comparison with the older witches are the women who knew their herbs in medieval times, and the younger witches are what modern Wicca looks like from the outside.

Thirdly, the Hiver is fascinating because this is a creature that is trying to survive by latching onto minds and hanging on until the mind dies. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel evil, just desperate, it will give the person a lot of magical power thinking that this will keep him safe. The Hiver doesn’t even seem to notice the damage it is doing.

I hope you have enjoyed yourself and until next time.

Happy reading to all, and to all a good night.