Going Postal – Paul Kidby Paperback – Letterbox Edition

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett – Penguin Letterbox Edition (Paul Kidby cover)

Always push your luck because no one else would push it for you.

Moist von Lipwig is good at being other people. He is less good at being hanged. Lord Vetinari offers a third option: restore Ankh-Morpork’s Post Office or try the rope again. The building is a tomb of undelivered letters. The staff are few, odd and loyal to a service the city has forgotten. The Grand Trunk clacks company moves messages faster than any postman, and Reacher Gilt would like the post to stay buried.

Moist does what con men do. He invents a future, sells it, and then has to live in it. Mr Pump the golem walks one step behind him. Stanley collects pins. The letters want to be read. Adora Belle Dearheart, who works for the Golem Trust and does not suffer fools, becomes the reason a man who never meant to be honest starts meaning it. Somewhere in the pipes of the clacks a darker fraud is running, and the Post Office is the last thing standing in its way.

First published in 2004, Going Postal is Discworld novel 33 and the first of the Moist von Lipwig books, followed by Making Money and Raising Steam. It is Pratchett on trust, branding and the idea that a letter is a promise. You can start here. Vetinari, the Watch and the city will still make sense.

This new Letterbox paperback from Penguin uses Paul Kidby’s original cover art. Kidby’s Ankh-Morpork Post Office: stamps, steam and a man who has just decided not to run.

• Discworld novel 33
• Moist von Lipwig book 1
• Publisher: Penguin
• Cover artist: Paul Kidby
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 496
• Size: approx. 198 mm × 127 mm × 29 mm