Travelling Accountants

From Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki
Revision as of 22:33, 1 January 2008 by AgProv (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

A band of itinerant jolly adventurers, who never stay in one place for very long, who travel, on their neat and orderly little carts, from village to hamlet on their never-ending circuit of the Sto Plains and the lower Ramtops, doing the books for little businesses, helping people with their tax returns, and living the wonderful travelling life. They took in the young Mavolio Bent as an orphan, after his first attempt at a career went traumatically wrong, and put him on a sound personal footing that eventually led to him becoming Chief Cashier at the Royal Bank of Ankh-Morpork.

it is quite possible that as the day gives way to night and the caravan comes to its halt, they drink beer, and happy laughing gipsy accountants dance the Double Entry Polka to the sound of wild accordions and violins...

This idea is very much akin to the Travelling Librarians of the Tiffany Aching books.

Annotation

This idea was first used by Neil Innes and Eric Idle, in the short-lived and fondly remembered post-Monty Python TV show, Rutland Weekend Television[1], circa 1975. A band of carefree gypsy accountants is seen singing the Accountancy Shanty[2] with accordian accompaniment... The idea was reworked by the full Monty Python team as the "supporting feature" to their last full-length movie, Monty Python's Meaning of Life, where the overworked peons of an accountancy firm revolt, mutiny, and take to "sailing the wide accountancy" as corporate pirates...