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Terry Pratchett and Vadim Jean – Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay | Review

Title: Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay

Author: Terry Pratchett

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 256

Rating: 8/10

Terry Pratchett and Vadim Jean – Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather

This book is a bit of a gem, and I prefer it to the actual novel – but then, when I reviewed that, I talked about how I enjoyed the TV movie of the book more than the original, and this is the screenplay to that, with extra cool shit thrown in for good measure.

What we basically have here is the unabridged script for the movie, which was written by Vadim Jean and “mucked about with by Terry Pratchett”. It’s presented in the form of a (quite frankly massive) A4 book in full colour, with a huge picture of Death on the cover, and it only gets better as you go through it. The colour continues inside, because the script is accompanied by stills from the film, to help it to come alive when you read it.

This, then, reads almost like a graphic novel, and as long as you’ve got no problem with reading plays and screenplays then I’m sure you’ll enjoy it – however, if this is your first time reading a screenplay then it might take you a short while to get used to the format. And, of course, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend reading this as your first Terry Pratchett book, unless you really enjoyed the movie and that’s how you discovered his work – despite how great I think this is, there’s still better out there, just waiting for you to find it.

Terry Pratchett

Click here to buy Hogfather: The Illustrated Screenplay.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb – This Mitchell and Webb Book | Review

Title: This Mitchell and Webb Book

Author: David Mitchell and Robert Webb

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 262

Rating: 9/10

David Mitchell and Robert Webb – This Mitchell and Webb Book

You know Mitchell and Webb, right – the two comedians who starred in Peep Show and the ‘I’m a PC/I’m a Mac‘ adverts? Okay, okay, I know – they’ve done loads more than that, but that’s as good a place as any to start.

Here, the two men turn their pens away from writing comedy sketches and try their hands at writing a full-length book, not necessarily alternating but taking it in turns to switch around every now and then and assume the role of the sole writer. I think most people have a favourite, and if you’re anything like me then your favourite is David Mitchell – he just has a deep and biting wit that Webb can only aspire to, although Webb does make up for this in other ways.

One of the coolest things about this book is that it’s a beautiful, big hardback, with colour printing and gorgeous designs inside. Think of it as being like the Guinness Book of Records, only funnier, less fact-based and potentially on acid. It’s a similarly-sized A4 book, and it has a matching production value, but the similarities end there – for starters, ten-year-old copies of this are much less likely to be changing hands at a car boot sale.

If you’re a fan of either David Mitchell or Robert Webb, this book’s for you. I don’t know what else to say – imagine their shows, in book form.