Designing Terry Pratchett's Discworld takes readers behind the scenes of the amazing partnership between Sir Terry Pratchett and artist Paul Kidby. It shows how the Discworld was brought to visual life - from the earliest sketches to the final magnificent masterpieces - and how Terry and Paul absorbed influences from art and pop culture, fusing them into the Discworld landscape. Whilst Terry was the undisputed creative fountainhead, for three decades Paul has been the artistic force taking the people, places and piece of man-eating luggage from Terry's ever-fertile imagination right into our world. This is a unique insight into one of the great literary partnerships, packed full of hitherto unseen art and the real stories behind it...

For fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, this book is a treasure trove of information. Illustrator Paul Kidby started working with Pratchett in 1993 and has designed the Discworld book jackets since 2002 following the death of artist Josh Kirby. He has illustrated many Discworld publications including The Art of Discworld, best-selling The Last Hero and the Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium. In 2019 he illustrated Good Omens written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

This lovingly crafted publication is littered with production drawings, as well as plenty of finished paintings. It takes us through the Discworld series looking at characters and places exploring how concepts were conjured up and how early draughts were fine tuned to become the characters that we know and love.

It's a love letter to the fans of the art of Discworld. A beautiful insight into how Pratchett's universe was brought to life by Kidby.

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Nick Smithson