Book Review: Witches Abroad
Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Corgi 1992 (First published 1991)
Genre: Adult Fiction
Pages: 286
Date Read: Aug ‘26
Main Characters:
Magrat Garlick (Witch)
Esme Weatherwax (Witch – also known as ‘Granny’)
Gytha Ogg (Witch – also known as ‘Nanny’)
Greebo (Nanny Ogg’s cat)
Lily Weatherwax (Esme’s sister)
Erzulie Gogol (Voodoo woman known as Mrs Gogol)
Blurb:
It seemed an easy job… After all, how difficult could it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn’t marry a prince?
But for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, travelling to the distant city of Genua, things are never that simple…
Servant girls have to marry the prince. That’s what life is all about. You can’t fight a Happy Ending.
At least – up until now…
My review:
I’m not quite sure where to start with this review. I guess I’ll start by saying that I did enjoy it. However, as I find with a lot of Terry Pratchett books, I’m left wondering what on earth just happened! As a witch myself, I always love stories with witches in. Witches are in my opinion fascinating people. They are certainly more than capable of thinking for themselves and the part where Granny Weatherwax was forced to gamble to win back money that Nanny Ogg had lost was hilarious! I also thoroughly enjoyed Greebo being turned into a human. You could just picture him perfectly in your mind. As for the rest of the book, it is very much like three excentric witches have crash landed through various popular fairy stories and traditional tales and have somehow ended up saving the day at the end. It was good. The stories and tales that were hinted at were certainly recognisable and it helped to put a different spin on them. I could certainly sympathise with the witches liking their home comforts and being baffled and bewildered by foreign customs. I’m just not sure that there was anything overly clever or ground breaking to make it stand out from other similar books that I’ve read. It was a good holiday read that I was able to dip in and out of thanks to the frequent breaks despite Pratchett’s traditional lack of chapters. If you like witches and cats, then you will probably enjoy this book.
Star rating: 4
