Lords and Ladies

Author’s Note

By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it’s not essential.

This one is different. I can’t ignore the history of what has gone before. Granny Weatherwax first turned up in Equal Rites. In Wyrd Sisters she became the unofficial head of a tiny coven consisting of the easy-going, much-married Nanny Ogg and young Magrat, she of the red nose and unkempt hair and tendency to be soppy about raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens.^{1}

And what took place was a plot not unadjacent to that of a famous play about a Scottish king, which ended with Verence II becoming king of the little hilly, forested country of Lancre.

Technically this shouldn’t have happened, since strictly speaking he was not the heir, but to the witches he looked like being the best man for the job and, as they say, all’s well that ends well. It also ended with Magrat reaching a very tentative Understanding with Verence … very tentative indeed, since both of them were so shy they immediately forgot whatever it was they were going to say to one another whenever they met, and whenever either of them did manage to say anything the other one misunderstood it and took offence, and both of them spent a lot of time wondering what the other one was thinking. This might be love, or the next best thing.

In Witches Abroad the three witches had to travel halfway across the continent to face down the Godmother (who had made Destiny an offer it couldn’t refuse).

This is the story of what happened when they came home.

NOW READ ON …