Meanwhile, below stairs in the Night Kitchen, home of the magnificent pies with the pickled onions in the crust, romance is blossoming. He introduces the offside rule, goalkeepers, pointy hats for goalposts, a whistle for the referee instead of a poisoned dagger, and a ball that goes 'gloing' rather than 'clunk'.Īs for the coaching, that becomes the responsibility of Mr Nutt, a lowly apprentice down in the vats who looks a bit like a goblin, talks like Jeeves and shows the sort of appreciation of the aesthetics and philosophy of the game that makes Arsene Wenger sound like a saloon-bar dullard. It is up to the ever-diligent Ponder Stibbons to develop the shoving and gouging of old-school foot-the-ball into a game fit for wizards. It turns out that the bequest which meets 87.4% of the wizards' ginormous food bill – all that cheese, all those pies – requires them to take part in a game of foot-the-ball, the violent and basically goal-less street sport beloved by the common folk of Ankh-Morpork.

Unseen Academicals is the sixth book in the Wizards series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.The 37th Discworld novel finds the wizards of Unseen University facing an unthinkable calamity – swingeing cuts in their food budget. Or, to borrow another phrase, it's about life, the Universe and everything' The Times 'This isn't just football, it's Discworld football. The prospect of the Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a young woman who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt, who has something powerful, and dark, locked away inside him.Īs the match approaches, secrets are forced into the light and four lives will be entangled and changed for ever. This is not going to be a gentleman's game.

so they're in the mood for trying everything else. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match without using magic.

The thirty-seventh Discworld novel and sixth in the Wizards series - revamped with a fresh bold look targeting a new generation of fantasy fans.įootball has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork.

Pratchett unseen academicals