Jingo – Josh Kirby Paperback – Letterbox Edition

Jingo by Terry Pratchett – Penguin Letterbox Edition (Josh Kirby cover)

It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us.

A lump of land called Leshp comes up from the Circle Sea, dripping silt and old ruins, exactly where Ankh-Morpork and Klatch can both point at it and shout mine. Flags go up. Songs get louder. People who yesterday bought Klatchian food now remember ancient grudges. Lord Vetinari would prefer a quiet solution. The Guilds would prefer a profitable one. Commander Samuel Vimes of the City Watch would prefer that nobody started a war on his patch.

The Watch follows the bodies anyway. Carrot believes in the law even when the law has gone on leave. Angua follows a scent across a border. Detritus discovers artillery. Colon and Nobby discover patriotism, briefly. 71-hour Ahmed is already ahead of them. Somewhere between the barracks and the desert, Vimes has to decide whether a policeman is still a policeman when his city wants a soldier instead.

First published in 1997, Jingo is Discworld novel 21 and the fourth City Watch book, after Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms and Feet of Clay. It is Pratchett on jingoism, race and the moment a street copper looks at an army and sees a riot with better funding. You can read it alone. It hits harder if you already know Vimes when he is tired and still going.

This new Letterbox paperback from Penguin uses Josh Kirby’s original cover painting. Kirby at war: boats, blades, and a city that has decided the other lot started it.

• Discworld novel 21
• City Watch book 4
• Publisher: Penguin
• Cover artist: Josh Kirby
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 464
• Size: approx. 198 mm × 128 mm × 25 mm