Wintersmith: A Story of Discworld

This story, charming in every sense of the word, describes how Tiffany, a 13-year-old novice witch, manages without quite meaning it to entrance the Spirit of Winter by entering into a dance with him. The courtship that follows is laced with danger, since by rights the Wintersmith must always in time give precedence to the Summer Lady of the Flowers. Tiffany starts receiving some well meant but unwelcome presents; there is also another boy on this earth that she has feelings for. But there is never any sense of menace in this affectionate, utterly original story, where seasoned old witches talk and behave like devious but ultimately loving grandmothers while the young witches in their charge make all the mistakes common to adolescence before finally finding their feet. Written in the spirit of Diana Wynne Jones at her most elegiac, this story is a reminder of Pratchett’s diversity as a novelist. Beautifully written and at times highly comic, it is an extraordinary achievement, creating a world that is both recognisably human while also romantically and magically different. NT