Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite writers. I have loved every book of his that I’ve read so far. They are all brilliant, and Unseen Academicals is right up there with the best of them.
This is book 37 in the Discworld series and the seventh and final book that features characters from the Unseen University which is a wizarding university in Ankh Morpork. While it helps to have read the earlier books featuring the same characters, it is not necessary to do so. This book can be read as a standalone.
Unseen Academicals has a mix of familiar characters and new ones who only appear in this book. Of the familiar characters, is the first among equals, as he refers to himself, Arch Chancellor, Mustrum Ridcully. There’s the former dean of Unseen University who has, at the beginning of the book, left to join a rival university, Ponder Stibbons, the youngest and most productive member of the staff, and Lord Vetinari, the ruler and tyrant of Ankh Morpork.
The story begins when Ponder Stibbons, who has recently taken over yet another role as the keeper of traditions, discovers that a generous grant from a former Arch Chancellor that the university depends on, is not going to be available to them any more, because one of the conditions of the bequest is that the University will raise a team that will participate in a game of football from time to time.
The staff have been ignoring this condition for the last twenty years. Most of them want to go on ignoring it, but when Stibbons points out that losing the grant will mean that they will have to restrict themselves to three meals a day, instead of the usual nine, they change their tune.
Lord Vetinari, in the meantime, wants to reform the game of football, bring in rules and codes of conduct. He’s ignored it for years, but the rivalries are getting more heated, and the fighting in the streets, every time there’s a game, is getting out of hand. Elsewhere in the city there are dwarves who are engaged in bringing fashion to Ankh Morpork, who find the perfect female model in the most unlikely place.
Some of the most important characters in this book are the ones who work below the stairs at the University. There’s Glenda, who runs the night kitchen and makes the best pies in all of Ankh Morpork, Juliet, who is her friend and fellow cook, Trevor Likely, son of a legendary footballer who works in the candle vats and loves football and Mr Nutt, who works with him.
Mr Nutt is a goblin, or so everyone thinks. He’s small and quiet and mild-mannered, so people don’t think much of him when they first see him, but that changes once he starts talking. He’s fiercely intelligent, a polyglot and a polymath, he reads widely and thinks deeply. He has charming manners and is one of the nicest and kindest people around. He develops an unlikely friendship with Glenda who is a straight-talking, intelligent young woman who does more than her share of helping and taking care of people. The two of them are the heart of this book.
This is a fabulous story with a brilliant plot, well-crafted characters, excellent dialogue and fantastic story telling. It’s about football and fashion, but it is also about inclusivity and openness to people who are not like us, and the truth that intelligence, skill and competence are not the purview of the few. They can be found anywhere if we will but look.
between the pages 