A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction

In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world's bestselling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short-form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett's long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press; to the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco and, actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas - all shot through with his inimitable brand of humour.

With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A. S. Byatt, illustrations by the late Josh Kirby and drawings by the author himself, this is a book to treasure.

Contents:

Foreword by A. S. Byatt

Non-Discworld Shorter Writings

• The Hades Business (1963)
• Solution (1964)
• The Picture (1965)
• The Prince and the Partridge (1968)
• Rincemangle, the Gnome of Even Moor (1973)
• Kindly Breathe in Short, Think Pants (1976)
• The Glastonbury Tales (1977)
• There's No Fool Like an Old Fool Found in an English Queue (1978)
• Coo, They've Given Me the Bird (1978)
• And Mind the Monoliths (1978)
• The High Meggas (1986)
• Twenty Pense, with Envelope and Seasonal Greeting (1987)
• Incubist (1988)
• Final Reward (1988)
• Turntables of the Night (1989)
• #ifdefDEBUG + `world/enough' + `time' (1990)
• Holliwood Chickens (1990)
• The Secret Book of the Dead (1991)
• Once and Future (1995)
• FTB (1996)
• Sir Joshua Easement: A Biographical Note (2010)

Discworld Shorter Writings

• Troll Bridge (1992)
• Theatre of Cruelty (1993)
• The Sea and Little Fishes (1998)
• The Ankh-Morpork National Anthem (1999)
• Medical Notes (2002)
• Thud: A Historical Perspective (2002)
• A Few Words from Lord Havelock Vetinari (2002)
• Death and What Comes Next (2004)
• A Collegiate Casting-out of Devilish Devices (2005)
• Minutes of the Meeting to Form the Proposed Ankh-Morpork Federation of Scouts (2007)
• The Ankh-Morpork Football Association Hall of Fame playing cards (2009)

Appendix

• Deleted extract from 'The Sea and Little Fishes'