Book:Lords and Ladies

Lords and Ladies
Cover art by Josh Kirby
Co-author(s)
Illustrator(s)
Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	November 1992
ISBN	0575052236
Pages	288
RRP
Main characters	Granny Weatherwax, Queen of the Elves, Mustrum Ridcully, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick
Series	Witches Series
Annotations	View
Notes	Book #14
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb

It's a hot Midsummer Night. The crop circles are turning up everywhere – even on the mustard-and-cress of Pewsey Ogg, aged four. And Magrat Garlick, witch, is going to be married in the morning... Everything ought to be going like a dream. But the Lancre All-Comers Morris Team have got drunk on a fairy mound and the elves have come back, bringing all those things traditionally associated with the magical, glittering realm of Faerie: cruelty, kidnapping, malice and evil, evil murder.[*] Granny Weatherwax and her tiny argumentative coven have really got their work cut out this time... With full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris Dancers and one orang-utan. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

[*] But with tons of style.

Characters

Major Characters

Granny Weatherwax
Queen of the Elves
Mustrum Ridcully
Nanny Ogg
Magrat Garlick
King Verence II
Shawn Ogg, a man of many jobs (mostly the ones no one else wants...)
Ponder Stibbons

Minor Characters

King of the Elves
Lankin
Jason Ogg
Death
Binky
Pewsey Ogg, Jason's sticky 4-year-old child
The Librarian
The Bursar
Millie Chillum
Girl witches:
- Perdita
- Lucy Tockley (aka Diamanda)
- Amanita DeVice
- Muscara (real name Susan)
- Violet Frottidge, witch name Magenta
Lancre Morris Men, excluding Jason Ogg above
- Bestiality Carter, Lancre's only baker
- Weaver, the thatcher
- Obidiah Carpenter, the tailor
- Baker, the weaver
- Thatcher, the carter
- Tailor, another weaver
- Tinker, the tinker
Herne the Hunted, small god
Giamo Casanunda, dwarf
Hodgesaargh, falconer
Mr Brooks, the royal beekeeper

Cameos and Mentions

Dreen Ogg (mentioned)
Mr Skindle
Mr Spriggins, the butler (mentioned)
Mrs Scorbic, the cook
Boggi, Ankh-Morporkian dressmaker
Ironfoundersson, dwarf
Vitoller's Men, including Hwel and Tomjon (mentioned)
Goodie Whemper (mentioned, maysherestinpeace)
William Scrope, who dies chasing a Ramtop Red stag into the Circle
Palliard, family to which Scrope's widow belongs
The Dean
The Lecturer in Recent Runes
The Reader in Invisible Writings, title currently held by Ponder Stibbons
Muckloe, pig breeder in Slice
Greebo
Mr Quarney, Lancre's only storekeeper and his wife
Mother Peason (mentioned)
Poorchick (mentioned)
Bandits' Guild
Granny Postalute (mentioned)
Threepenny Nitt, Perdita's father
Keeble, maiden name of Diamanda's mother, possible reference to the Keebler Elves
Nanny Gripes, Goody Heggety, Nanna Plumb, and Black Aliss, chain of witches from whom Granny Weatherwax descends (implying she's *much* younger than Black Aliss?)
Mr Thrum, casualty of the Stick and Bucket Dance
Psychotic Lord Hargon of Quirm (mentioned)
Biddy Spective, Nanny's mentor
Weezen (mentioned)
Mrs Persifleur, at whose lodging house Ridcully once stayed (mentioned)
Carbonaceous, Ridcully's troll mate. Carbonaceous is not a rock, but references a quality some rocks have, particularly Carbonaceous chondrite, a type of meteorite. (mentioned)
Queen Agantia of Skund (mentioned)
Sobriety Ogg, Nanny's ex-husband (mentioned)
Eva Carter, Bestiality's wife (mentioned)
Creosote (mentioned)
Greyhald Spold (mentioned)
Queen Amonia of Lancre (mentioned)

Locations

Ramtops
Lancre
- The Dancers
  - The Piper
  - The Drummer
- The Long Man
- Lancre Gorge through which flows the Lancre River, and which is spanned by Lancre Bridge (Lancratians aren't real creative on geographical naming)
- Lancre Castle
  - Long Gallery, a long gallery
  - Great Hall, a great hall
  - Deep Dungeons, guess...
- Cabb's Well (mentioned)
- Copperhead Mountain
- The Goat and Bush
Fairyland
Ankh-Morpork
- Unseen University
  - Library
  - High Energy Magic building
- Broad Way (mentioned)
  - The Dysk (mentioned)
  - Lord Wynkin's Men (mentioned)
  - Bearpit (mentioned)
Genua (mentioned)
Klatch (mentioned)
Slice (mentioned)
- The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine (mentioned)
Bad Ass
Sto Helit (mentioned)
Dungeon Dimensions (mentioned)
Ephebe (mentioned)
Ohulan
- Thrift Bank

Things and Concepts

Nine Day Wonderers, Lancre religion possibly parodying either the Seventh-Day Adventist Church or the Church of Latter-Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church).

Strict Offlians, Lancre religion worshiping Offler

Almanack And Booke Of Dayes, popular outhouse book

Lancre Stripe and Sto Saddleback, breeds of pig

Midsummer Day, date of Verence and Magrat's marriage

unicorns

dried frog pills

Cripple Mister Onion

Legendes and Antiquities of the Ramtops, by Birdwhistle, which records the duel between Granny and Diamanda (the fact that this even is a "legend" and "antiquity" implies Lords and Ladies takes place in the distant past?)

Stick and Bucket Dance

Lappet-faced Worrier or wowhawk, a particularly pathetic falcon

Stacklady's Morphic Resonator, spell used to turn a bandit into a pumpkin (perhaps Magrat's wand in Witches Abroad was infested with this spell?)

Klatchian Nights bath essence

Twurp's Peerage

Soul Cake Tuesday

Martial Arts, a book that tells you how to fight

Century of the Fruitbat, current century

Roundworld References

Morris dancing

Yossarian

Tupperware

Yankee Doodle, song

The Magnificent Seven

Trivia

Heavily spoofs Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Cover Artwork

In the touring exhibition The Art of Josh Kirby, which at the time of writing was in the Walker Gallery in his home town of Liverpool, the full cover art of Lords and Ladies is exhibited - that is, in all three versions. The gallery annotation is that whilst Kirby normally loved working on a Pratchett book, this one was a frustrating nightmare to him, as the publishers kept rejecting it as inappropriate, or unsuitable, or otherwise not fit for their best-selling author's cover.

Kirby ended up doing at least three different versions of the cover art, one of which, in a much-altered form, was used for the hardback, depicting as many of the book's characters and scenes as possible in a broad panorama. A second entirely different version (depicting Nanny Ogg and Casanunda confronting the King of the Elves) was used for the paperback. Btw, the original artworks for the covers are a lot bigger than the books and apparently are reduced down several times for publication. You would be surprised, especially if, like this contributor, you'd never really given the publishing process for artwork much thought before.

Adaptations

Theatre

Adapted into a stage-play by Irana Brown in 2001, adapted again by Stephen Briggs in 2015.

Parts of the novel, along with The Science of Discworld II: the Globe, were used as the basis of the play The Shakespeare Codex, performed in 2016.