50 Years of Terry

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50 Years of Terry is a year long celebration of Terry Pratchett, starting on the 50th anniversary of the publication of his first novel, The Carpet People. Below we’ve concentrated on the new Discworld editions published as part of the celebration; for a more comprehensive list of everything included, see the L-Space wiki page for “50 Years of Terry”.

Anniversary edition of The Carpet People

The event was kicked off with a new edition of The Carpet People, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its first publication in November 1971. It was accompanied by a new audiobook version, the fourth for this book, read by David Tennant.

New Discworld Editions and Audiobooks

As part of the celebrations, new audiobook editions of "all 40" Discworld novels were announced in November 2021. They are published by Penguin Audio between 2022 and 2023, with Hogfather released early in December 2021 in time for Christmas. These editions are unabridged, and have a different narrator for each series, but all of them feature Bill Nighy as the "voice of the author" reading the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz as the voice of Death. (The Death books are otherwise narrated by Sian Clifford.) They were released by sub-series, beginning with the Witches books on Terry’s birthday, 27 April 2022. They were followed by the Wizards, Death, Moist von Lipwig, City Watch and Tiffany Aching books, with the latter both originally scheduled for April 2023, but ending up being pushed later. The “standalone" books have also been published, either as part of a series batch or on their own.

In March 2022, new paperback and ebook editions of the novels were also announced, with new covers in a consistent design across all the books, and with colour schemes and cover text identifying each series. These are being published alongside the new audiobooks, which use square versions of the same cover art, though a few of the print editions preceded the audiobooks.

Of note is that the new editions list only 35 Discworld novels in the back, listing the “Younger Readers” ones separately (and now marking them as Young Adult). These series, as defined by the publishers, are a bit different to those used by fans, mostly because they are avoiding any overlap. Eric is getting a new audiobook, but not a print edition. The Last Hero is not being published in this edition at all, presumably because of difficulties with the very specific format (though it has been an audiobook before). Below you'll find details for each series as defined by the publishers.

Witches

Release date: 28 April, 2022 Audio narrator: Indira Varma

Unambiguous. The publishers have kept them separate from the Tiffany Aching books. (This was also the intended publication date for the Dunmanifestin edition of The Ultimate Discworld Companion, but it ended up being pushed back to October.)

Wizards

Release date: 7 July, 2022 Audio narrator: Colin Morgan

Most of the Rincewind series, plus Unseen Academicals. The wizards books which crossover with Death are listed under that series. Of note: Eric is not being republished alongside the others in a new physical edition, but did get a new audiobook with a cover matching the others.

Death

Release date: 27 October, 2022 Audio narrator: Sian Clifford

Also unambiguous. All narrated by Sian Clifford, even before the introduction of Susan in Soul Music.

Industrial Revolution

Release date: 23 February, 2023 Audio narrator: Richard Coyle

They list only the Moist von Lipwig books in this category; what fans usually describe as the "Industrial Revolution" (or more commonly Ankh-Morpork) books are all listed as standalone titles, though notably The Truth and Monstrous Regiment are being published on the same date as these. Richard Coyle previously played the part of Moist in The Mob’s television adaptation, Going Postal.

City Watch

Release date: 25 May 2023 Audio narrator: John Culshaw

Tiffany Aching

Release date: June 2023 Audio narrator: Indira Varma

Neither these or The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents are listed in the new editions of the main novels; they seem to be marketing them separately as young adult fiction.

Standalone books

These are being released alongside other collections, using one-off narrators - mostly names in the UK. They are explicitly labelled as "standalone" in the new editions’ list of Discworld books.

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