A Blink of the Screen

A Blink of the Screen

Author	Terry Pratchett
Country	UK
Language	English
Series	Anthologies
Release number	1
Genre	Science fiction and fantasy
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	2012-10-11
Pages	318
ISBN	978-0-385-61898-4 First edition
Followed by	A Slip of the Keyboard

Blurb

In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world’s best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett’s long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas, all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour.

With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A. S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

Contents

Introduction by A. S. Byatt.

Non-Discworld Shorter Writings

• “The Hades Business” (1963)
• “Solution” (1964)
• “The Picture” (1965)
• “The Prince and the Partridge” (1968)
• “Rincemangle, the Gnome of Even Moor” (1973)
• “Kindly Breathe in Short, Thick Pants” (1976)
• “The Glastonbury Tales” (1977)
• “There's No Fool Like an Old Fool Found in an English Queue” (1978)
• “Coo, They've Given Me the Bird” (1978)
• “And Mind the Monoliths” (1978)
• “The High Meggas” (1986)
• “Twenty Pence, with Envelope and Seasonal Greeting” (1987)
• “Incubust” (1988)
• “Final Reward” (1988)
• “Turntables of the Night” (1989)
• “#ifdefDEBUG + 'world/enough' + 'time'” (1990)
• “Hollywood Chickens” (1990)
• “The Secret Book of the Dead" (1991)
• “Once and Future” (1995)
• “FTB” (1996)
• “Sir Joshua Easement: A Biographical Note” (2010)

Discworld Shorter Writings

• “Troll Bridge” (1992)
• “Theatre of Cruelty” (1993)
• “The Sea and Little Fishes” (1998)
• "The Ankh-Morpork National Anthem" (1999)
• “Medical Notes” (2002)
• "Thud - A Historical Perspective" (2002)
• "A Few Words from Lord Havelock Vetinari" (2002)
• “Death and What Comes Next” (2004)
• “A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices” (2005)
• "Minutes of the Meeting to Form the Proposed Ankh-Morpork Federation of Scouts" (2007)
• "The Ankh-Morpork Football Association Hall of Fame playing cards" (2009)

Appendix

• Deleted extract from “The Sea and Little Fishes” (1998)

Podcast episodes

Major appearances

These are episodes primarily devoted to discussing the book as a whole. See pages for individual pieces for episodes about them.

Date	Show	Episode	External link
2023-04-12	Word Less	“#22: The Blink of the Screen by Terry Pratchett”	spotify.com

Other appearances

Episodes where there's significant discussion of the book, but it's not the focus of the episode.

Date	Show	Episode	External link

To be added.

External links

• A Blink of the Screen at the L-Space Wiki
• A Blink of the Screen on Wikipedia