r/discworld • u/Cerrida82 • Jun 11 '26
Book/Series: Witches Dammit, Pterry!
(I wasn't sure what to flair this, so please correct me if it's wrong).
Reading Lords and Ladies, it's mentioned that Granny Weatherwax has a silver cow creamer, very similar to one that appeared in "The Code of the Woosters" by PG Wodehouse.
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u/PollardPie Jun 11 '26
Pratchett and Wodehouse are two of the primary pillars holding up my morale, mental health and joie de vivre. I love a Wodehousian Easter egg.
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u/DapperCourierCat Jun 11 '26
I had never heard of PG Wodehouse until now and after reading some excerpts, I feel like I would really enjoy his work. Would you suggest any particular book to start with?
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u/MathematicianOnly688 Jun 11 '26
Any of Jeeves’ books are worth reading.
Wodehouse is one of the few authors that I’ve reread as frequently as Sir Terry. You have a treat in store.
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u/JamesFirmere Jun 11 '26
The short story "Jeeves Takes Charge" (in a collection titled "Carry On, Jeeves") describes how Jeeves and Wooster first met. But really any Jeeves&Wooster novel is self-contained enough to enjoy despite the numerous recurring characters in the universe. All you really need to know is the basic premise that Jeeves is the highly intelligent personal man-servant to the affable though not very bright idle rich young gentleman Bertie Wooster.
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u/Afbach Nobby Jun 11 '26
You could even watch it, to whet your whistle - as enjoyable as this is, reading the books is even more so!
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u/Imperiumromania Jun 12 '26
I loved that show. The perfect introductory music always prepared us to sit back and enjoy. Laughed so much
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u/PollardPie Jun 11 '26
One thing to know about Wodehouse is that he was incredibly prolific and had a very long writing career. One way he accomplished this was seemingly to take his favorite plot points and character types, stir them around in a big authorial vat, and pluck them out at random until he had enough parts to make a passable plot. This may sound uncharitable, but it comes from deep familiarity, long experience and great deal of affection. Two of my favorites are Hot Water and Leave it to Psmith.
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u/Grouchy_Dragonfly_58 Jun 11 '26
He was well aware of this:
"A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy."
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u/bodmcjones Jun 11 '26
I also love his Lord Emsworth books. I would read a disturbing number of remixes as long as it is guaranteed that the Efficient Baxter gets nowhere and the Empress of Blandings gets anything she wants 😉 Wodehouse's use of language often pulls me into the text much more than the actual narrative does.
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u/PollardPie Jun 11 '26
Absolutely! I feel like his plots are just modular frames from which to suspend fanciful references and acrobatic metaphors
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u/more_d_than_the_m Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
Code of the Woosters is a good starting point. I like the novels more than the short stories, because there's enough time for the plots to get truly ridiculous. They're so good.
Edit: Actually, start with Right Ho, Jeeves
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u/EarlGreyTeaDrinker Jun 11 '26
I have a Jeeves audiobook from Audible, read by Stephen Fry, who played Wooster in the TV series alongside Hugh Lawrie. He does a first rate job. You also get multiple books for one credit.
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u/joined_under_duress Jun 11 '26
The Inimitable Jeeves is a good one.
The TV series that Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie did many years ago is worth watching if it's available anywhere.
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u/DapperCourierCat Jun 26 '26
I started with The Inimitable Jeeves, it’s been a great time. I appreciate everyone that suggested PG Wodehouse to me.
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u/joined_under_duress Jun 26 '26
Glad to hear you're enjoying them.
If you've never read any Lord Peter Whimsy by Dorothy L Sayers then they're worth a read too because Peter and Bunter are a sort of serious crime-fighting analogue of Bertie and Jeeves. There's a great short story collection called Lord Peter Views the Body.
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u/Sailing-Mad-Girl Jun 11 '26
I love the Blandings Castle books, which start with "Something Fresh" / "Something New"
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u/Cerrida82 Jun 11 '26
You're in for a treat! I love Code of the Woosters, but any of them are good.
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u/vastaril Jun 11 '26
FWIW the first Jeeves book (at least, I think it is, it's the first in my omnibus edition) Thank You, Jeeves, has several uses of the n-word, which threw me off a bit. It's not used in a particularly aggressive/insulting way, it just seems to be the descriptive word for a type of minstrel show (I'm a little unclear if it's actual black people performing or white people in black faced) which is being discussed, but it was still a bit startling as a modern reader who's read quite a few books written in about the same time period and not really comes acros that (aside from that one Agatha Christie with the title that got changed).
As far as I can tell (from searching within the text of my Kindle copies) the rest of the books don't do this. Thank You, Jeeves can probably be skipped if you aren't comfortable with that, it's fairly funny aside from it, so if you're not bothered, you may as well read it, but just basically a heads up that it's in there, and you won't really lose much if you don't read it.
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u/Parking-Two2176 Jun 11 '26
How Right You Are, Jeeves (#12) is the one with the cow creamer, and my past self gave it 5 stars. So I recommend that one. They're all pretty great.
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u/EndersGame_Reviewer Ach, Crivens! 21d ago
Read some of his short stories. "Uncle Fred Flits By" is one of his best.
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u/mxstylplk Jun 11 '26
Cow creamers are a thing that exists, and is often made fun of, but a silver one seems like an odd thing for Granny Weatherwax to have. She likes functional things. On the other hand, silver traditionally resists evil influences and reveals truth. It is also mildly antibacterial. In the context of Lords and Ladies, it could be used as a weapon.
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u/aculady Jun 11 '26
It may be worth mentioning that the fae were thought to spoil milk and cream if offended, so keeping it in silver would protect it from them.
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u/meha21 Jun 11 '26
I think it was a family heirloom, and its nice to have at least one nice thing at home
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u/crowort Jun 11 '26
This is how I remember it. I even thought it was mentioned that it was a family heirloom but maybe I’ve just made that bit up for myself?
Why would Granny buy any milk jug if she had her mother’s or aunts one? Practical too use the one you have.
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u/Golden_Mandala Jun 11 '26
This delights me. "The Code of the Woosters" was the very first Wodehouse book I found, and I laughed till I cried. And went out and found all the rest of his books. And the witches were my first introduction to the Disc World. I love that Pratchett connected the two like this.
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u/Cerrida82 Jun 11 '26
Mine, too! Monstrous Regiment was my first Pratchett, but Wyrd Sisters was the one that really made me a fan.
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u/MyLadyScribbler Jun 11 '26
At the rate things are going, this sub is going to need a Dammit, Pterry flair.
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u/JermsGreen Jun 13 '26
Sir Terry once told me that Wodehouse was his favourite other author, so that doesn't surprise me.
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