Jingo

Jingo is the twenty-first novel by Terry Pratchett, one of his Discworld series. It was published in 1997. The title is related to the word jingoism, meaning an attitude of belligerent nationalism. "By jingo!" is an archaic, jocular oath, of obscure origin, used in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. The word -- with derived forms such as 'jingoism' and 'jingoistic' -- became associated with aggressive, militaristic nationalism as a result of a popular song dating from the Turko-Russian war of 1877-78, which began:

We don't want to have to fight,

but by Jingo if we do

We've got the ships, we've got the men,

we've got the money too.

Interestingly (in the light of the circumstances of this particular war), it is also the name of a warlike Japanese empress of the 2nd century, Jingū (神功皇后, Jingū-kōgō who some credit with conquering the Korean peninsula for Japan.

Themes

The key theme in the book is the ways in which people can be incited to go to war over insignificant things and manipulated into believing that the war is justified. The 'enemy ' is denigrated and called names to make them less than human. Pratchett uses the novel to show his contempt for the "military geniuses" in all levels of military command from the Napoleonic wars up to WWI who seemed to subscribe to the theory that if they lost 100,000 men and the enemy lost 100,001, they were the winner. The incredible carnage of WWI and the loss of a generation was the result. Pratchett takes another shot at these geniuses later in the book when he says that the Ankh-Morpork General Tacticus (the name a play on the Roman Senator and historian Tacitus) was unique among generals in that he usually brought back most of his men which was one reason history did not approve of him. Similarly, the discussion of tactics between Lord Rust, the Ankh-Morpork military leader, and his adjutant reflect the stupidity and inflexibility of military command very reminiscent of the leaders during WWI where men were slaughtered in futile charges out of trenches (going over the top) to gain a few feet of ground, with little or no change in tactics from year to year; the classic example being the opening battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916 and the slaughter of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel with an 80% casualty rate of the 800 troops involved.

There are many parallels in the book between Lawrence of Arabia, both book and man. Carrot in the desert has a strong resemblance in action to Lawrence of Arabia as he takes charge and organizes the men. Vimes holds a hot coal in his hand and dares Rust to do the same, reminiscent of Lawrence holding the burning match in his fingers. Both say, "The trick is not to mind that it hurts."

Another key theme is the moral debate Vimes has with himself and with Vetinari as well as in his dealings with Lord Rust when Rust declares martial law in regard to the rule of law in society. Vetinari argues the importance of the law applying to all citizens, even if it means that Vimes has to arrest him (ordering him to take him in chains for trial - all part of the theatre). Vimes initially questions whether the law, if it is being administered by someone who is abusing power and is wrong, should be applied to Vetineri. Vimes wonders whether he can be flexible in his interpretation of the law in a just cause, This was the basis of the Nuremberg trials, where saying "I was just following orders" was not an acceptable defense for doing something morally wrong. Ultimately, the conclusion is that the law must be upheld or it becomes a slippery slope toward dictatorship and mob rule but simply acting because a despot tells you to is grounds for some creativity - including arresting both armies and their leaders..

Publisher's Summary

It isn't much of an island that rises up one moonless night from the depths of the Circle Sea-just a few square miles of silt and some old ruins. Unfortunately, the historically disputed lump of land called Leshp is once again floating directly between Ankh-Morpork and the city of Al-Khali on the coast of Klatch - which is spark enough to ignite that glorious international pastime called "war". Pressed into patriotic service, Commander Sam Vimes thinks he should be leading his loyal watchmen, female watchdwarf, and lady wereworlf into battle against local malefactors rather than against uncomfortable well-armed strangers in the Klatchinan desert. But was is, after all, simply the greatest of all crimes-and it's Sir Samuel's sworn duty to seek out criminal masterminds wherever they may be hiding.... and lock them away before they can do any real damage. Even the ones on his own side.

Plot Summary:

With the opening of the novel, the island of Leshp, which had been submerged under the Circle Sea for centuries, rises to the surface. Its position, exactly halfway between Ankh-Morpork and Al Khali (the capital of Klatch), makes the island a powerful strategical point for whoever lays claim to it, which both cities do.

In Ankh-Morpork, a Klatchian Prince named Khufurah is parading through Ankh-Morpork, where he will be presented with a Degree in Sweet Fanny Adams (Doctorum Adamus cum Flabello Dulci), but an assassination attempt occurs, and the Prince is wounded. Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, begins investigating the crime, originally suspecting both a Klatchian named 71-Hour Ahmed and a senior Morporkian peer, Lord Rust, of being involved.

The attempted assassination breaks off relations between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch as Prince Khufurah's brother, Prince Cadram, effectively declares war on the city of Ankh-Morpork. At this point, Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, resigns—apparently of his own free will—and Lord Rust takes command of the city. Vetinari has refused to become involved in the war with Klatch, due to the fact Ankh-Morpork does not have an army to stand against any opposing forces (the reason given being that killing enemy soldiers makes it difficult to sell them things afterwards), but Rust declares Martial law and orders the city's noble families to revive their old private regiments.

Vimes, refusing to follow Rust, stands down as Commander of the Watch. Captain Carrot resigns as well, as doSergeant Colon, Sergeant Detritus and Corporal Angua. The idea of putting the watch under the command of  Corporal Nobbs is rejected by the ruling Council of Guild leaders and the Watch is disbanded. Vimes then recruits the Watch into his own private army regiment, reasoning that, as an official noble, he is entitled to do so by law and by Lord Rust's command, with the group remaining independent as knights legally falling under command of the king or his duly appointed representatives, neither of which exist in Ankh-Morpork.

Angua, following 71-Hour Ahmed, is captured by the Klatchians and taken to Klatch. Carrot, rather than rush off to save her, reports back to Vimes, who gets his private army to head for Klatch. Meanwhile, Nobby and Sergeant Colon have been recruited by Vetinari and his pet inventor, Leonard of Quirm, on a secret mission of their own, unknown to Vimes.

Vetinari, Leonard of Quirm, Colon, and Nobby end up in Leonard's "Going-Under-the-Water-Safely Device" and discover that Leshp is actually floating on top of a huge bubble of gas, and that the gas is escaping from said bubble, meaning that Leshp will, ultimately, sink back under the sea again.

Vimes catches up with 71-hour Ahmed and has, by this time, figured out that Ahmed is a fellow policeman. Ahmed and his band of Klatchian D'regs and Vimes army head towards Gebra, in Klatch, where the war is due to start.

To help blend in, Vetinari, Nobby and Fred Colon get hold of some Klatchian clothing, though Nobby ends up wearing the costume of a dancing girl and gets in touch with his feminine side. The three also head to Gebra. Arriving at Gebra they discover that Carrot has convinced the two armies to get together and play a game of football (he has an inflatable football in his backpack for just such an emergency), Vimes is preparing to arrest both Klatchian Prince Cadram and Lord Rust for various breaches of the peace (such as being prepared for war) and 71-hour Ahmed is supporting him. Vetinari prevents an international incident by ostensibly declaring the surrender of Ankh-Morpork and offering war reparations. To be ratified on Leshp in one week.

Vetinari is returned to Ankh-Morpork, under arrest and in disgrace, but as Leshp has vanished back under the sea again, the treaty was to be signed in a non-existent territory and thus the charge of treason is invalid. Seeing he has been tricked, and with the people and generals turning against him, Prince Cadram flees, with 71-hour Ahmed in pursuit and his brother Khufurah recovers and resumed control of Klatch. Vimes is informed by Carrot that Vetinari has been "reminded" that the old rank of Commander was the same as the old rank of Duke. He objects, claiming that only a King can make a Duke, but then realises that Carrot was speaking to Vetinari. Since Carrot is, of course, very much not the King of Ankh-Morpork his reminding of Vetinari is all that is required for Vimes to get his new position and rank.

Vimes "accidentally" loses his "dis-organiser" (given to him by his wife) which kept giving him incorrect information. It is explained that, had Vimes reacted slightly differently in the beginning—staying in Ankh-Morpork rather than attempting to follow Ahmed and rescue Angua—the whole history of the Ankh-Morpork v. Klatch war would have gone very differently.

Popular References and Annotations:

Page numbers in brackets taken from the original hardcover edition, those without are from the Harper Collins paperback edition.

A similar real life incident to the creation of Leshp happened in 1831 off the coast of Sicily when an underwater volcano produced the island of Ferdinandea. As in the book several nations contested for the new land and while they were arguing it eroded back into the sea by 1832.

-page 4 [p. 8] "'Whose squid are they, dad?'"

Fishing rights have been a frequent cause of dispute between the UK and neighbours, most dramatically in the 'Cod Wars' between the UK and Iceland (1958, 1973, 1975), where fishing vessels from both nations sabotaged each other's nets and a collision between opposing naval vessels led to the death of an Icelandic Engineer.

- page 7 [p. 11] "'Who's going to know, dad?'"

In the 1963 comedy Mouse on the Moon, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick competes with the USA and USSR to put the first human on the moon. The Fenwick rocket gets there first, but someone points out that this doesn't matter -- the glory will go to whoever gets home first. The Americans and Russians quickly make their excuses and leave, pausing only to enter the wrong capsules before sorting themselves out.

Page 8 - [p. 11] "There was a tradition of soap-box speaking in Sator Square." Sator Square is the Discworld parallel to Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park which has a very similar tradition. The whole scene shows how an audience can be manipulated by an effective speaker if the speaker's words and facts go unchallenged - a trait very evident in today's world of "fake news." It is only when Vimes picks Mr. Jenkins argument apart that the crowd's support falls apart. Satyrs are also lustful drunken Greek woodland gods - appropriate given the type of person a place like Sator Square seems to attract both as speakers and audience.

Page 8 - 9 "It's the wind", thought Vimes, "It's bringing something new." In this line and the previous paragraphs about the various weeathervanes, Pratchett plays with the old expression about there being "something new in the wind". The line and Ankh Morpork weathervanes resonate with the first sight of Leshp being the weathervane, again indicating changeability.

Page 10 -- [p. 13] .Vimes says to Detritus, "'His ship is the Milka, I believe.'" - This is a pun on an old British milk-marketing ad campaign from the 1980s - 'Drinka pinta milka day' and one of Christopher Columbus' ships which was named the Pinta.

Page 12 - "People 'd live for ages side by side, nodding amiably at each other on the way to work every day, and then some trivial thing would happen and someone would be having a garden fork removed from their ears." This is a reference to the not uncommon issue of hedge wars where neighbours have been assaulted and worse over property boundaries and hedge height. Pratchett uses this reference in other novels as well.

Page 15 - [p. 16] "'I believe the word "assassin" actually comes from Klatch?'"

For a full description of the country of Klatch read the related article. In summary it is based loosely on the area and people that formed the Ottoman Empire. The English word 'assassins' was originally used to denote a group of fanatical Ismailis (a Shi'ite Muslim sect) who, between 1094 and 1273, worked for the creation of a new Fatimid caliphate, targeting prominent individuals. Later, 'assassin' in English came to mean any politically motivated murderer. The name derives from the Arabic "hashashin" -- Marco Polo and other European chroniclers claimed that the Assassins used hashish to stimulate their fearless acts. For example, Brewer writes: "Assassins. A band of Carmathians, collected by Hassa, subah of Nishapour, called the Old Man of the Mountains, because he made Mount Lebanon his stronghold. This band was the terror of the world for two centuries, when it was put down by Sultan Bibaris. The assassins indulged in haschisch (bang), an intoxicating drink, and from this liquor received their name." Pratchett uses this reference again in Sourcery. As an aside see the Hawkwind song 'Hassan I Sabbah' on their album Quark, Strangeness and Charm.

Page 16 - Burleigh is selling arms to both sides in the potential conflict, a long standing tradition among arms dealers. Ford and GM to name only two were selling to both the Axis and Allies in WW 2 until the moment the USA entered the war. Vickers shipbuilding made Type 40 destroyers which were used by the Royal Navy and the Argentine Navy in the Falklands war and the French Exocet missiles were used by both those navies as well. Enfield Small Arms sold to both the Union and Confederate sides during the American Civil war and today the United States government is the world's largest arms dealer with 40% of the market providing arms to 57% of the autocracies in the world so the odds are good that American arms end up being used by combatants from both sides.

Page 17 - [p. 17] "'Have you ever heard of the D'regs, my lord?'" Pratchett is playing with the dregs of society, of which the French Foreign Legion was considered to be composed - those outcasts from French society with nothing left to lose. In addition the apostrophe makes the word D reg(ulars) as in the lowest of the low in the 'regular' army. Pratchett commented that "the whole Klatchian Foreign Legion bit has its roots in 'Beau Geste', which was the Foreign Legion movie. It must be one of the most parodied, echoed and copied movies of all time -- it was so influential that it is probably where most people's ideas of the FFL originate."

Page 19 - [p. 18] "'It's about time Johnny Klatchian was taught a lesson,'"

Johnny Klatchian - In WWI the British press referred to the soldiers of the Ottoman Empire as "Johnny Turk" and Johnny Foreigner is a common British pejorative for any undesirable foreigner.

Page 21 [p. 20] "'It is no longer considered... nice... to send a warship over there to, as you put it, show Johnny Foreigner the error of his ways. For one thing, we haven't had any warships since the Mary-Jane sank four hundred years ago.'"

In the latter part of the 19th century, the phrase "gunboat diplomacy" was coined to describe one typical way in which warring European empires would negotiate with less powerful uppity countries. The gunboats in question would not normally be expected to do anything, merely to "show the flag" as a reminder that, however vulnerable it might appear on land for instance, Britannia still Ruled the Waves, and could make life very difficult for anyone who got too obstreperous. The Mary-Jane is a reference to the English carrack style naval vessel Mary Rose, which was Henry VIII's flagship and which,(most embarrassingly) sank, in calm seas, immediately after being launched from Portsmouth in 1545. The ship was recovered in the 1980s, and is now a tourist attraction. It is also a play on the slang name for 'marijuana'.

Page 23 (pg 21)- "Very well then by Jingo", (Selachii) snarled. "Alone." "We could certainly do with one," said Lord Vetinari. Pratchett's word play puns on the concept of Ankh Morkpork going it alone in the war and needing a loan to prosecute the war.

Page 25 (pg 22) - Lord Vetinari's statement and the preceding dialogue "We don't want to fight but...." "By Jingo if we do" and "We have no ships. We have no men. We have no money, too." is a direct reference to a 19th Century British song about war enthusiasm surrounding the Russo-Turkish War: "We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do, we've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too." The song is the origin of the phrase Jingoism and of the book's title.

Page 25 [p. 22] - "Lord Downy says, "'Unfortunately, the right words are more readily listened to if you also have a sharp stick.'"which is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt famous quote on foreign policy: "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."

Page 26 [p. 23] "'Let's have no fighting, please. This is, after all, a council of war.'" This line from Vetenari echoes the famous line from Stanley Kubrick's 1964 movie Dr Strangelove, which has President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) saying: "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room. See also the annotation for p. 156 of The Colour of Magic .  

Psge 30 [p. 25] The Artful Nudger is a play on Dicken's Artful Dodger in Oliver Twist.

Page 31 [p. 26] When Carrot forms Ankh-Morpork's first Cub troop with the two rival gangs (reminiscent of the Bloods and the Cripps or any other rival gangs) they say "Wib, Wib, Wib, Wob Wob Wob" a parody of the traditional scouting salute of Dyb, Dyb,Dyb (Do your best), to which the reply is Dob, Dob, Dob (Do Our Best). Carrot says that Corporal Angua is going to teach them the campfire howl - appropriate given that it s a Wolf Cub pack and she is a were-wolf.

Page 33 [p. 27] "You ever been to sea, sarge?" said Nobby. "Hah! Not me" said the sergeant. "Don't go flogging the oggin, lad." "Oggin" is Briish slang for the ocean but this dialogueis based on the 1979 Captain Highliner seafood commercial which had the grizzled sailor asking the young boy "Ever been to sea Billy?" The commercial became the basis of a great many off colour, jokes and sketches along the lines of "Ever been to sea, Billy? Ever seen the great white whale? Ever been blown ashore?""Pratchett is clearly playing with the sexual innuendos that arose out of that commercial in the dialogue between Nobby and Colon.

Page 34 [p. 27] "'I had this book about this little kid, he turned into a mermaid,'" This sounds very much like the story of young Tom the chimney sweep's transformation, told in the moralistic Victorian children's tale The Water Babies, written in 1863 by Charles Kingsley.

Page 35 [p. 28] - Sergeant Colon makes several disparaging references to Klatchian inventions such as "'They invented all the words starting with al '" including alcohol and algebra. In fact the Chinese likely invented the former although Colon is correct regarding the words themselves. Alcohol orginates from the Arabic al-kuḥul meaning "the powdered antimony", Algebra comes from the Arabic term الجبر (al-jabr) and originally referred to the surgical treatment of bonesetting. Al in Arabic is simply the definite article (the) and is joined to the word that it defines.

Page 35 [p. 28] -They also say that the "Klatchians invented nothing. [...] they came up with zero." which is a reference to the fact that western mathematics adopted the concept of the number zero from the Arabs. However, the invention of zero, which Colon and Nobby see as "nothing" was a huge development in mathematics, leading to algebra and calculus and ultimately to the computer.

Page 38 [p. 30] "'[...] it is even better than Ironcrufts ('T'Bread Wi' T'Edge') [...]'" This is a play on the long-running series of British commercials for a certain brand of bread emphasised the Yorkshire origins of the manufacturer. Pratchett's version of the slogan parodies a Yorkshire accent, presumably for similar reasons. Crufts are something that is left over and unnecessary (particularly coding in computer software) and Dwarf bread is always baked rock hard so Ironcrufts is an appropriate nam e for the makers of this bread. It also has connotations to "Crufts" the famous international dog show which was named after Charles Crufts, the general manager of a dog biscuit company, as well as to the obvious bread "crusts" - the edge of the bread. See also the annotation for p. 26 of Feet of Clay .

Page 40 [p. 31] "'This is all right, Reg? It's not coercion, is it?'" Pratchett has been criticized unfairly for Carrot's apparently uncharacteristic (dishonest) behaviour in this scene. In fact, Carrot is questioning whether or not it is coercion not condoning improper behaviour as a policeman, a subtle difference and understandable given that the thieves have taken Angua hostagel. Pratchett explains it thus:

"I assume when I wrote this that everyone concerned would know what was going on. The thieves have taken a Watchman hostage, a big no-no. Coppers the world over find their normally sunny dispositions cloud over when faced with this sort of thing, and with people aiming things at them, and perpetrators later tend to fall down cell stairs a lot. So Carrot is going to make them suffer. They're going to admit to all kinds of things, including things that everyone knows they could not possibly have done. What'll happen next? Vetinari won't mind. Vimes will throw out half of the charges at least, and the rest will become TICs and probably will not hugely affect the sentencing. The thieves will be glad to get out of it alive. Other thieves will be warned. By the rough and ready local standards, justice will have been served."

Page 43 [p. 34] "'Hey, that's Reg Shoe! He's a zombie! He falls to bits all the time!' 'Very big man in the undead community, sir.'"

Reg Shoe first appeared in Reaper Man as the founder of the Campaign for Dead Rights (slogans included "Undead, yes! Unperson, no!"). Possibly Vimes has forgotten that he personally ordered zombies to be recruited into the Watch, towards the end of Feet of Clay.

Page 44 [p. 35] "He's very hurt about it, sir. He says that he's found that the undead don't understand the difficulties of policing in a multi-vital society, sir" Vital means fundamentally related to life so Pratchett is poking fun at Roundworld's need to be politically correct in dealing with different races, cultures and genders - the multi-cultural, multi-racial and multi-gender modern world. In this case multi-vital because Reg Shoe is in fact dead.

Page 45 [p. 35] "'That's Probationary Constable Buggy Swires, sir.'"

Swires was the name of the gnome Rincewind and Twoflower encountered in The Light Fantastic. Given that gnome lives are described in that book as 'nasty, brutish and short', it seems unlikely that this is the same gnome. Possibly a relative, though.

Page 46 [p. 35] "[...] The line "...the long and the short and the tall!" refers to a popular WWII song first recorded by George Formby in 1940. It was said to have been written in 1917 by either Fred Godfrey or Jimmy Hughes to music composed by Robert Kewley but there is evidence that there was an earlier version amongst British military personnel in the 1880s in India. The Formby version says " Bless 'em all, bless 'em all! Bless the long and the short and the tall! Bless all the sergeants and double-you o-ones, Bless all the corporals and their blinkin' sons."

The version sung in the barracks of the Allies substituted "Fuck" for "Bless".

The phrase was also used as the title of a stage play (filmed in 1960) by Willis Hall, describing the plight and fate of a squad of British soldiers in Burma.

Page 49 -"Rains of small fish and frogs were common enough, although bedsteads caused comment" Throughout the novel, various things rain down on the earth, some of this activitiy clearly caused by the wizards. Raining fish and frogs are not uncommon in Roundworld where wind vortexes lift small creatures out of lakes and rivers and carry them aloft to be deposited over land. This is also likely a reference to the Bible's Exodus 16.4 and the rain of bread God promises Moses.

Page 53-54 [p. 40] "Right now he couldn't remember what the occasional dead dog had been. Some kind of siege weapon, possibly."

Besieging armies would sometimes hurl the rotting corpses of dead animals over the city or castle walls by catapult, with the aim of spreading disease and making the city uninhabitable. So in a sense, a dead dog could be a siege weapon... Monty Python's Holy Grail uses this image.

Page 60 [p. 44] "It looked as if people had once tried to add human touches to structures that were already ancient..."

Leshp bears a resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft's similarly strange-sounding creation, R'lyeh -- an ancient, now submerged island in the Pacific, inhabited by alien Things with strange architecture, which rises at very long intervals and then causes people to go insane all over the world. For full details, see Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.

Page 63 Carrot's report says "I read him his rites". Pratchett is playing on the two homonyms "right and "rite". The former are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement . The latter are formal or ceremonial acts or procedures prescribed or customary in religious or other solemn use. the correct word in this case is "rights" but the latter has connotations with "last rites" which the priest administers when you are about to die - too often an appropriate comment when dealing with some police forces, but not in the case of Carrot.

Page 65 [p. 47] "'Oh, Lord Venturi says it'll all be over by Hogswatch, sir.'"

"It'll all be over by Christmas" was said of the First World War by armchair strategists, in August 1914. Ironically, the phrase has become a popular reassurance: more recently, President Clinton promised the American public in 1996 that US troops in Bosnia would be "home for Christmas".

Page 72 and following - The dialogue between 71-hour Ahmed and Vimes reflects, exposes and pokes fun at some of the common western stereotypes and pejoratives of Middle Eastern races: buying your wife for a bunch of camels, "towelhead" because of their custom of wearing a turban, the huge curved ceremonial sword clearly designed for killing not religious purposes, the gold teeth, the flying carpet, etc

Page 75 [p. 55] The Prince from Klatch is receiving an honorary degree from Unseen University, Doctorum Adamus cum Flabello Dulci which actually means 'Adam of Doctors with Fanny Sweet' but it is intended to mean Doctor of Sweet Fanny Adams which would really have been Doctor Adami Flabelli Dulcis. This is British slang for "Doctor of Sweet Fuck All" or "nothing". The term has a macabre origin in the British navy in 1869 when tinned mutton rations were introduced. The sailors, who were not impressed called them Fanny Adams after a little girl who had been murdered and dismembered a couple of years earlier - the suggestion being that they were her remains. The term eventually broadened to mean any useless or worthless thing.

Page 76 [p. 55] "'I go, I hcome back.'"

Ahmed's catchphrase is borrowed from Signior So-So, a comic Italian character in the famous wartime radio series It's That Man Again.

Page 77 [p. 55] "The Convivium was Unseen University's Big Day."

Oxford University has a ceremony called the Encaenia, which also involves lots of old men in silly costumes and a procession ending in the Sheldonian Theatre. Not surprisingly for Unseen University, Convivium means "feast" in Latin.

Page 78 [p. 56] "It was an almost Pavlovian response."

The classic Pavlovian conditioning experiment in our world involved ringing a bell (or applying other neutral stimuli) before and during the feeding of a group of dogs. After a while the dogs began to associate the ringing of the bell with food (as indicated by their starting to salivate upon hearing the bell, even without food being forthcoming). A part of them had essentially been programmed to think that the bell was the same thing as food. No strawberry meringues or wizards named Denephew Boot were involved.

Page 82 - "It looked like a wolf if one of its ancestors had been a long-haired Klatchian hunting dogs" This line foreshadows Angua disguising herself as one of those long-haired Klatchiian hunting dogs to get on board 71-hour Ahmed's ship.

Page 82 [p. 62] and following - "A lone bowman," said Vetinari, "An idiot with some kind of mad grudge. Who died in the execution of the, uh, attempted execution" This is just one of many references to the assassination of US President, John F Kennedy. The Klatchian dignitary is shot during a parade from the University likely the library building, by "a lone gunman "Ossie Blunt.'" Lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald is supposed to have shot John F. Kennedy from the Texas Schools Book Depository during a parade through Dallas. Ossie Blunt is murdered shortly after the assassination attempt as was Lee Harvey Oswald who died at the hands of Jack Ruby within a couple of days. The Klatchian dignitary has been "shot in the back by a man in front of him who could not possibly have used the bow that he didn't shoot him with from the wrong direction...'" This line pokes fun at the inconsistencies in the official account of the Kennedy assassination. The second crossbow man killer is a reference to the second gunman on the grassy knoll in the Kennedy shooting. The line about "he thinks it'll magically improve his shot.'"is a reference to the official Kennedy assassination report that describes how the bullet moved in some very strange ways through Kennedy's body which the conspiracy theorists referred to as the "magic bullet theory". In addition there is the complex pun regarding Stoolie (who is a stool pigeon or informer) who is a gnoll covered in vegetation (ie a grassy knoll) a very obvious reference to the supposed site of a second gunman in the Kennedy assassination. Finally, there is a connection with last names and Soviet agents. Oswald tried to defect to the Soviet Union and was alleged to be a Soviet agent. Anthony Blunt was a leading art historian and MI5 agent who was a Soviet agent (whether Pratchett was thinking of this when he chose Ossie's last name is unknown but Pratchett never picked names at random).

The description of Stoolie also has parallels to the depictions of the lower levels in society from medieval times to Victorian England: The rag and bone men, the night soil collectors and the body collectors in the plague years depicted by everyone from Dickens to Monty Pythons in the movie, The Holy Grail.

Page 85 [p. 61] "'And many of them could give him a decent shave and a haircut, too.'" This line refers to the early days of surgery when barbers were often the surgeons.

Page 87 [p. 61] Colon and Nobbs are referred to by Vimes as the "keystones of the Watch" a reference to the Keystone Kops who were a bumbling bunch of policemen in early 20 century silent films by Mack Sennet.

Page 88 [p. 62] "'[...] it is still law that every citizen should do one hour's archery practice every day. Apparently the law was made in 1356 and it's never been --'" In 1363, in England, Edward III -- then in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War with France -- ordered that all men should practise archery on Sundays and holidays; this law remained technically in force for some time after the longbow was effectively made obsolete as a weapon of war.

Page 92 [p. 65] "'An experimental device for turning chemical energy into rotary motion,' said Leonard. 'The problem, you see, is getting the little pellets of black powder into the combustion chamber at exactly the right speed and one at a time.'" Leonard of Quirm is a recurring character in the Discworld series and is an obvious reference to Leonardo de Vinci. In Roundworld, an early attempt at an internal combustion engine used pellets of gunpowder, stuck to a strip of paper (rather like the roll of caps for a cap pistol). The attempt was just as successful as Leonard's.

Page 96 - "Raining unquenchable fire down on other humans? .... You'd never find an artisan to build it or a soldier who would pull the lever" Leonard of Quirm clearly has a different moral compass than modern arms dealers and military minds as well as soldiers who simply follow orders. The device itself resonates with flame throwers.

"That! Oh something of a toy really. Makes use of the strange properties of some otherwise quite useless metals. they don't like being squeezed. So they go bang. With extreme alacrity." Leonard's invention is clearly the atom bomb.

Page 100 [p. 70] "'I have run out of Burnt Umber.'" Burnt umber is a dark, cool-toned brown colour. Umber is an earth pigment containing manganese and iron oxides, used in paints, pastels and pencils. The name comes from Umbria, the region where it was originally mined and adopted as a pigment for art.

Page 102 - Burleigh and Stronginthearm Shureshott Five - Vickers and Armstrong manufactured the popular machine gun used in WWI. Burleigh (Burly) ties in nicely with Stronginthearm (Armstrong) to create a double barreled arms manufacturer like Smith and Weston.

Page 110 [p. 76] "'It looks like a complete run of Bows and Ammo!'" Warrior of Fortune and Bows and Ammo are references to the magazines Soldier of Fortune and Guns and Ammo. See the annotation for p. 126 of Hogfather and p. 236 of Lords and Ladies .

Page 112 [p. 77] "'Bugger all else but sand in Klatch. Still got some in his sandals.'"

When the First World War broke out, Britons were much comforted by the fact that the supposedly unstoppable "steamroller" of the Russian army was on their side. Rumours spread that Russian troops were landing in Scotland to reinforce the British army, and these troops could be recognised by the snow on their boots. Ever since, the story has been a standard joke about the gullibility of people in wartime.

Page 115 [p. 79] "'[...] that business with the barber in Gleam Street.' 'Sweeney Jones,'" This is a reference to Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who robbed his customers, killed them and made them nto meat pies with the help of the pie shop next door. The "original" version of Sweeney Todd was written by Edward Lloyd under the title of The String of Pearls, published around 1840. It was also immortalized in a 1936 film, the 1979 musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and the 2007 movie version of that musical. He was supposedly based on a real character but this is doubtful. The story was the most successful of a spate of such shockers dating from the early 19th century. Sawney Bean, the Man-Eater of Midlothian was supposedly based on a real 13th-century Scottish legal case; also published about this time were two French versions, both set in Paris. All of these were claimed to be based on true stories -- but then, this pretense w Captain Carrot disguises himself as another vegetable; "Mr Spuddy Face" which is a take off on the child's toy Mr Potato Head.as standard practice for novelists at the time. Sweeney Todd is also Cockney rhyming slang - "Sweeney Todd" = "Flying Squad", an elite unit of the Metropolitan Police.

Page 117 - Angua says to Carrot "Walk a mile in these paws" an appropriate remaking of the old saw "Walk a mile in my shoes" since Angua is a werewolf.

Page 120 [p. 82] "'Carrot, it's got "Mr Spuddy Face" on it.'" Captain Carrot disguises himself as another vegetable; "Mr Spuddy Face" which is a take off on the child's toy Mr Potato Head, a Hasbro toy which has a plastic body and removable body and facial parts. In recent years Mr. Potato Head achieved renewed popularity due to the Toy Story films.

Page 122 - "Chapter Fifteen, Elementary Necromancy....Lesson One: Correct use of Shovel..." Necromancy is the practice of magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits so a shovel to dig them up first before communicating with them seems like a practical approach.

Page 125 [p. 85] "'He just kills people for money. Snowy can't read and write.'" In later editions of the book, this sentence was altered to 'Snowy can barely read and write' -- presumably for consistency with the Clue about the notebook (p. 106).

Page 127 [p. 87] "'Dis is der Riot Act.'"

The Riot Act was an old British law that allowed the authorities to use deadly force to break up 'subversive' crowds such as trade unionists or Chartists. It was an unusual law in that it had to be read out to the crowd before it came into force -- hence the significance of Detritus' attempt to read it -- and the crowd was then supposed to be given a reasonable time to disperse. However, it was wide open to abuse, and was associated with some very nasty incidents, such as the Peterloo Massacre in 1818. It was not finally abolished in the UK until the mid-20th century, when the government decided that it would not be an acceptable way to deal with the regular riots then taking place in Northern Ireland.

Page 132 The crossbow was a "typical Saturday Night Special". The term "Saturday night special" is American slang for a cheap gun used in poor neighborhoods. They are usually small, of small caliber, and often unreliable or inaccurate.

Page 137 [p. 93] "'"Testing the Locksley Reflex 7: A Whole Lotta Bow"'" Named after the most famous archer of English mythology: Robin of Locksley, a.k.a. Robin Hood. In Roundworld a 'reflex bows' is a type of bow that curves away from the archer when unstrung.

Page 137 [p. 93] "Ten Best Caltrops" A caltrop is made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base (for example, a tetrahedron). Historically, caltrops were used defensively to slow the advance of troops, especially horses, chariots, and war elephants, and were particularly effective against the soft feet of camels. In modern times, caltrops are effective when used against wheeled vehicles with pneumatic tires.

Page 140 "Ankh-Morpork no longer had a fire brigade....it did not take long for people to see the rather obvious flaw in paying a group of people by the number of fires they put out" There are stories from the early days of firefighting, when fire brigades were paid by insurance companies not the city, that brigades would only put out fires in buildings that were insured by their company, that there were fights between rival brigades over who should put out the fire while the building in question burned and of fire fighters setting fire to buildings in order to get paid for putting the fire out. Some of these tales are urban legends but likely have a grain of truth in them.

Page 144 [p. 98] "'Good evening, Stoolie.'" "Stoolie" is an abbreviation for "stoolpigeon", a police informant as well as being excrement.

Page 145 [p. 99] "'That one had plants growing on him!'" As stated above Stoolie is technically a grassy gnoll - another reference to the Kennedy assassination.

Page 147 [p. 100] 'Rinse 'n' Run Scalp Tonic-Wtih Extra Herbs!'[...] "Snowy had cleaned, washed and gone." Two references to the shampoo 'Wash and Go', a trademark of Vidal Sassoon. Not surprisingly, Anhk-Morpork's ultimate huckster, Dibbler has a product as well, Dibbler's Homeopathic Shampoo. The ingredients are not mentioned but they are bound to be nasty.

Page 149 - "I doubt if (Snowy) went to the right shop." said Angua. "It says 'For a Glossy Coat" on the bottles I buy" Angua's shampoo is clearly shampoo for dogs.

Page 153 [p. 104] "'Hah,' said the Dis-organizer." The disogranizer 's parallel in Roundworld in the dayminder or desk organizer. The Discworld version seems to be better at confusion rather than organization -m hence the "Dis". In addition, in ancient Roman mythology, Dis Pater ("Father Dis") is the ruler of the underworld. In the sixth book of Virgil's Aeneid (one of the principal influences on Dante in his depiction of Hell), the hero Aeneas enters the "desolate halls and vacant realm of Dis. In Dante's Inferno the city of Dis encompasses the 6th through 9th circles of Hell. So the name is particularly appropriate to a demon-powered organiser. See the annotation for p. 73 of Feet of Clay .

Page 155 Footnote “It is a long-cherished tradition among a certain type of military thinker that huge casualties are the main thing. If they are on the other side then this is a valuable bonus.”

This is a jab at the "military geniuses" in all levels of military command from the Napoleonic wars up to WWI who seemed to subscribe to the theory that if they lost 100,000 men and the enemy lost 100,001, they were the winner. The incredible carnage of WWI and the loss of a generation was the result. Pratchett takes another shot at these geniuses later in the book when he says that the Ankh-Morpork General Tacticus (the name a play on the Roman Senator and historian Tacitus) was unique among generals in that he usually brought back most of his men which was one reason history did not approve of him. Similarly, the discussion of tactics between Lord Rust, the Ankh-Morpork military leader, and his adjutant reflect the stupidity and inflexibility of military command very reminiscent of the leaders during WWI where men were slaughtered in futile charges out of trenches (going over the top) to gain a few feet of ground, with little or no change in tactics from year to year; the classic example being the opening battle of the Somme on July 1st, 1916 and the slaughter of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel with an 80% casualty rate of the 800 troops involved.

Page 160 The book on "Klatch" that Mr. Wazir has sold Carrot is called the Perfume Allotment or the Garden of Delights. this is a reference to The Perfumed Garden of Sensual Delight by Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Nafzawi, a fifteenth-century Arabic sex manual and work of erotic literature. And an allotment is a community garden.

Page 164 [p. 111] "'Apparently it's over a word in their holy book, [...] The Elharibians say it translates as "God" and the Smalies say it's "Man".'"

The argument between Mr. Wazir and Mr. Gorrif arises out of a dispute between their two peoples, the Elharibians and the Smalies. " This section is in reference to the dispute in early Christianity over the nature of Christ and to what extent he was God or a man. In 325 AD the Council of Nicea tried to settle the question with the Nicean Creed but the dispute immediately resurfaced over a single word of the creed: one faction said that it was "homoousios" (of one substance), the other that it should be "homoiousios" (of similar substance). The difference in the words is a single (i) iota -- the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet just as in Jingo where it is said the letter actually might even be a speck of fly droppings. The dispute led to the split between the Western and Eastern branches of the church that continues to this day. In 632 AD similar divide occurred between the two branches of Islam, Shiites and Sunnis when the Islamic Prophet Muhammad died and a debate emerged about who should be his successor. While both sides agreed that Allah was the one true God and that Muhammad was his messenger, one group which became the Shiites believed that Muhammad's successor should be someone in his family (his cousin and son-in-law Imam Ali), while the other group which became the Sunnis said that any true believer who would follow the Prophet's standards was acceptable. This split was a political not a religious one.

Page 169 Lord Rust says "Commander Vimes, I must ask you to take the Klatchian residents into custody." During WWII Canada and the USA declared that people of Japanese descent were "enemy aliens" and forcibly moved them to internment camps - a particularly shameful chapter in these countries' histories because most of these people saw themselves as citizens of their new country not Japan and many wanted to fight on behalf of their new country.

Page 170 Rust says to Vimes, "You seem to feel, Vimes, that the law is some kind of big glowing light in the sky which is not subject to control. And you are wrong. The law is what we tell it to be. This conversation illustrates one of the central themes of the novel. Just because a man lime Rust orders someone to do as he commands, this is not justification for following the order if the command is inherently wrong - the classic Nuremberg argument. Rust finds to his chagrin that none of the members of the Watch will obey him, to their credit.

Page 171 "Even a counter-jumper like you" A counter jumper is a shopkeeper. Rust is indicating that Vimes is not upper class, a line he and others of the nobility repeat regularly, all of which foreshadows Vimes' rise to become a Lord. There is also a parallel to Maggie Thatcher, former British Prime Minister, whose father was a grocer. Pratchett has used in other novels, for example Wyrd Sisters. Napoleon reportedly referred to England derisively as a "Nation of Shopkeepers" which Thatcher turned into a positive.

Page 171 [p. 115] "Why play cards with a shaved deck?" "Shaving" is a method of marking cards by trimming a very, very thin slice from one edge, perceptible only if you know what to look for.

Page 174 [p. 118] "'Prince Kalif. He's the deputy ambassador.'"

Caliph was the title of the leader of the Muslim world, from the death of the Prophet in 632 onward; although the title has been divided and weakened since the 10th century, it was only officially abolished by the newly-formed Republic of Turkey as recently as 1924.

Page 176 [p. 119] "'War, Vimes, is a continuation of diplomacy by other means.'"

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780-1831), a Prussian general who fought against Napoleon, wrote a standard textbook On War (Vom Kriege, first published 1833), in which he said that "war is simply a continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means". If you want to understand Lord Rust's mindset as expressed by someone with a working brain, read Clausewitz.

Page 176 [p. 119] "'You've all got Foaming Sheep Disease.'" When Jingo was being written, there was much speculation about whether "mad cow disease" had first been transmitted from sheep to cattle, and whether it could be transmitted from cattle to humans. Both ideas are now widely accepted.

Page 178 [p. 120] "Yes sir. The Duke of Eorle's First Heavy Infantry, sir. The Pheasant Pluckers." The Duke of Eorle is a takeoff on Gene Chandler's 1962 number one hit song "Duke of Earl".

Page 179 [p. 121] Fred Colon's regiment the "'Pheasant Pluckers.' [....] 'even had a marching song,' .... 'Mind you, it was quite hard to sing right.'" This is a reference to the fact that many British army regiments had, nicknames, based either on some historical event or on some idiosyncrasy of their uniforms. Fred Colon's regiment had poached pheasants off an estate and wore the feathers in their cap. The marching song is the old tongue-twister: "I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son/ I'm only plucking pheasants til the pheasant plucker comes" with it's obvious humorous outcome. Another variant substitutes "son/come" for "mate/late". The feather in the cap is foreshadowing of Nobby receiving a white feather as outlined below. Rory Gallagher, the Irish musician plays with this tongue twister in his song "Handyman" - "I ain't no doctor, I ain't no doctor's son, But I'll fill your prescription, Till the real doctor comes".

Page 181 [p. 122] "'[...] he stuck it in the top pocket of his jerkin [...] whoosh, this arrow came out of nowhere, wham, straight into this book and it went all the way through to the last page before stopping, look.'" This is a takeoff on the many true and apocryphal stories of soldiers being saved when a bullet pierced the Bible they carried in a breast pocket.

Page 181 [p. 122] Nobby is given a white feather by an elderly woman, a reference to the practice of shaming young men who were not in uniform as cowards in an attempt to get them to join up. This practice was common in Britain particularly during World War I although it started earlier in the 18th Century. The practice had mixed success as often people who were serving their country in other capacities vital to the war effort were targeted as well as soldiers home on leave and those who had been injured in battle, both groups justifiably insulted by the gesture. Nobby, wisely is hoping to collect enough white feathers to make a pillow.

Page 188 [p. 126] "'[...] the moon rising over the Mountains of the Sun'" Medieval Arab legend identifies the source of the Nile as being in "the Mountains of the Moon".

Page 190 [p. 128] "'My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure.'" This is a direct quote from Tennyson's poem Sir Galahad:

My good blade carves the casques of men,

My tough lance thrusteth sure,

My strength is as the strength of ten,

Because my heart is pure.

Page 193 [p. 130] "It's the Book of Om. Five inches thick." Nobby clearly takes the sergeant's words regarding arrows not being able to pierce the book (see annotation page Page 181 [p. 122]) to heart, calculating that the thickness and size of the Book of Om will save him from any arrow which will only penetrate as far as the Apocrypha. This theme has been used seriously and parodied throughout popular literature and film - Rowen Atkinson in Blackadder III uses this theme at the end. Another can be found in the 1975 movie The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

Page 194 [p. 130] "'The Klatchian's Head. My grandad said his grandad remembered when it was still a real one.'" The reference is to traditional British pub names such as King's Head, Queen's Head or Nag's Head, all occurring quite frequently, where the appropriate head (a nag being a horse) is displayed on a sign outside, often on a pole before the building. There is a pub in Bath called "The Saracen's Head", which supposedly has a similarly colourful history. See also the annotation for p. 55 of Sourcery .

Page 203 Lord Rust says to Vimes, "You sir are no gentleman". See annotaion Page 171.

Page 206 [p. 138] "'VENI VIDI VICI: A Soldier's Life by Gen. A. Tacticus'"

'Veni vidi vici' ('I came, I saw, I conquered') is a quotation attributed to Julius Caesar, one of several great generals who contributed to the composite figure of Tacticus. There are similarities between Tacticus' book, as expounded later in Jingo, and The Art of War by the Chinese general Sun Tzu. Pratchett often uses "mock Latin" in his novels. When Vimes is reading the works of Tacticus he observes that Tacticus' famous statement Veni, Vidi, Vici (really from Julius Caesar) probably came about because he was looking through the "Vs" until he found three short applicable words - rejecting Veni, vermini, vomui (I came I got ratted, I threw up) and Visi, veneri, Vamoosi (I visited, I got an embarrassing disease, I ran away) before settling on the famous phrase. For more on Tacticus, see the annotation for p. 158 of Feet of Clay .

Page 210 Leonard of Quirm asks Colon "Are you of a nautical persuasion to which Colon replies that he is a happily married man. Leonard then clarifies this by saying "have you ploughed the ocean waves" to which Colon replies "everyone knows the horses would sink" This is another play on the old sexual joke as outlined in the annotation for Page 33 [p. 27] . In addition it is a play on the two meanings of ploughed. Ships are said to "plough the waves" because they slice through the water but Colon interprets Leonard's comments in the literal sense as in a horse drawn plough cutting furrows in a field in order to plant a crop.

Page 213 [p. 142] "'It is always useful to face an enemy who is prepared to die for his country,' he read. 'This means that both you and he have exactly the same aim in mind.'"

General Patton, addressing his troops in 1942: "No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."

Page 214-215 -[p. 143] Nobby and Colon's mission of vital importance and the line "this note will self-destruct in five seconds [...]'" is from the beginning of each episode of the television series Mission: Impossible.

-Page 215 [p. 143] "[...] extending from the cylinder for all the world like the horn of a unicorn [...]" Historically, the tusk of the narwhal has sometimes been taken for that of a unicorn.

Page 216 [p. 144] - "we only get the shovel nosed dolphins in our estuary here." Not surprising given that the Ankh River is practically solid that only a shovel nosed dolphin could move through the muck. This is clearly a takeoff on the Roundworld bottlenose dolphin.

Page 218 [p. 145] Leonard of Quirm says of his submarine "'But usually I just think of it as the Boat.'" This is a reference to the German submarines of WW II which were called Unterseeboot - shortened to U-boats. The 1981 German film by Wolfgang Petersen Das Boot (The Boat) in 1981 tells the story of one German submarine in 1941. The Ankh-Morpork submarine is similar in design to the first military submarines, the Turtle used during the American Revolution with no success against the British. The Anhk-Morpork version had a screw at the front for attaching itself to ships so that they could tow it along - the Turtle's screw was supposed to drill through the enemy hull and sink the ship; an idea which Leonard of Quirm views as a monstrous suggestion and very unsporting.

Page 220 "'I go, I come back.'" Ahmed's catchphrase is borrowed from Signior So-So, a comic Italian character in the famous wartime radio series It's That Man Again. see annotation for Page 76 [p. 55].

Page 226 [p. 150] "'[...] which kills people but leaves buildings standing.'" Said of the neutron bomb, which delivers a very heavy dose of radiation but relatively small explosive power or fallout. Mind you, it could fairly be said of most crossbows.

Page 228 [p. 152] "'Just me and Foul Ole Ron and the Duck Man and Blind Hugh [...]'"

Inconsistency alert: on p. 74, Carrot told Vimes that Blind Hugh had 'passed away last month'.

Page 232 [p. 154] "'I thought that was for drillin' into the bottom of enemy ships --'"

The first working military submarine was a one-man, hand-propelled vessel (more a diving boat than a submarine) called the Turtle, designed to use an augur to attach explosive charges to the hulls of enemy ships, the enemy in this case being the British during the American War of Independence. The Turtle attacked HMS Eagle in New York Harbor on 6 September 1776, but the hull was lined with copper and the screw failed to pierce it.

Page 238 [p. 158] "D'reg wasn't their name for themselves, although they tended to adopt it now out of pride." This has several parallels in our own world, most notably the Sioux, who adopted that name from their neighbours and habitual enemies the Ojibwa.

Page 255 - "It would appear I have died and gone to Paradise. Are you a houri? The prince is confusing the naked Angua with the virgins who accompany the faithful to paradise in the Islamic religion.

Page 249 - "Oh no, now it's bloody bedsteads again!" See annotation for Page 49 regarding the sky raining an assortment of items including the potential for bedsteads.

Page 248 [p. 165] "'That's St Ungulant's Fire, that is!'"

St. Ungulant's fire is a takeoff on St. Elmo's fire, which is a weather phenomenon involving electrical discharge that often occurs at sea around the rigging of a ship during a thunderstorm. In the Discworld, St Ungulant has a sidekick called Angus - appropriate given that an ungulate is a hoofed animal and an Aberdeen Angus is a breed of cattle. In Roundworld, it's supposed to be a good omen. For more on St Ungulant, see the annotation for p. 208 of Small Gods .

Page 252 - "Then it rained cake" See annotations page 49 and 249.

Page 253 -"I wonder how far the barometer has sunk?" (Reg Shoe asks) "All the way" said Detritus gloomily. "Trust me on dis." Pratchett is playing on the common phrase that a barometer falls or sinks when a low pressure area is approaching and the fact that they have thrown everything overboard to lighten the ship and increase their speed, including the lifeboat, anchor and barometer.

Page 256 - " A Seeing-Things-Pipe-You-Can-Breathe-Down" This is a submarine's snorkel used for running undetected below the surface while being able to use external air and see visually.

Page 259 - "Jackson had finally remembered how to propel a raft with one oar.... creating foam as the oar thrashed back and forth." Instead of paddling on one side of the raft, which unless you alternate sides or use a "J" stroke will make the raft go around in circles, Jackson is sculling the raft to propel it forward. This motion, done over the front or back (bow or stern if the raft had them) uses a figure 8 motion that to an observer looks like the oar is being thrashed back and forth.

Page 261 - 262 - Nobby wonders why his tattoo doesn't vanish when the skin is replaced as it sloughs off. Colon's explanation is that "all the blue skin bits are replaced by other blue skin bits. Off'f other people's tattoos." In reality the reason is simply that only the epidermis is sloughed off. The underlying layer, the dermis, is where the dye is located and the ink drops are too large for white blood cells to remove.

Page 263 [p. 174] "'The Sykoolites when being pursued in the wilderness [...] were sustained by a rain of celestial biscuits, sir.'" The Israelites, while fleeing from Egypt, were sustained by a divinely provided rain of bread (Exodus 16:4). Another of the rain of unusual objects including sardines, elephants (well one).

Page 263 - "The Fist of Gebra" and "Mount Gebra". Since these places are in Klatch which is modeled on an Arab country and "al" is the definitive article in Arabic perhaps Pratchett is playing on "The" Gebra or Algebra the branch of mathematics made possible by the invention of zero. See annotation page Page 35 [p. 28]

Page 264 - "Fortune favours the brave" said Carrot cheerfully. "Fortune favours the bold" or "fortune favours the brave" is the translation of a Latin proverb, which exists in several forms with slightly different wording but effectively identical meaning, such as audentes Fortuna iuvat, audentes Fortuna adiuvat, Fortuna audaces iuvat, and audentis Fortuna iuvat. This last form is used by Turnus, an antagonist in the Aeneid by Virgil. Another version of the proverb, fortes Fortuna adiuvat, 'fortune favours the strong/brave', was used in Terence's 151 BC comedy play Phormio, Fortuna refers to luck or its personification, a Roman goddess.

Page 273 [p. 180] "The motor of his cooling helmet sounded harsh for a moment [...]" Trolls brains slow down and don't function well when overheated so Detritus wears a helmet with a cooling fan. For the story of Detritus' helmet, read Men at Arms.

Page 274 [p. 181] Solid Jackson says, "'"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."'" The original proverb is "Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, teach him to fish and he can eat for the rest of his life." Pratchett also plays with this proverb in the Hogfather when Albert tells Death "Big part of belief, hope. Give people jam today and they’ll just sit and eat it. Jam tomorrow now – that’ll keep them going for ever."

Page 277 [p. 183] "'[...] those nautical stories about giant turtles that sleep on the surface, thus causing sailors to think they are an island.'" Nobby and Colon know this is ridiculous because turtles are not that small - a reference to the great turtle that supports Discworld. Colon and Nobby know this is ridiculous since giant turtles support the Discworld. In Roundworld, this is one of the many adventures of Sinbad, in The Thousand and One Nights. This is one of the many adventures of Sinbad, in The Thousand and One Nights.

Page 284 - Jabbar says "My tent is your tent". This line and the following ones about his wives, food and the sheep's eyeball in the food are are plays on the standard cliches about Arab hospitality and customs.

Page 285 -When Vimes calls Jabbars bluff on eating the sheep's eyeball, Jabbar says, "Well done? Extremely good! First time it have not worked in twenty years. Now sit down and have proper rice and sheep like mother". Pratchett is playing with the misconceptions westerners have about strange foreign food being the norm and westerners being obliged to eat things that they normally wouldn't at home in order to save face or not offend their host.

Page 288 - Vimes "took out a crushed and damp packet of cigars, pulled a coal out of the fire and took a deep drag".... Carrot says, "Jabbar says a camel certainly does shit in the desert, sir, otherwise you wouldn't have anything to light your cigar with, sir." In countries with a shortage of wood, animal dung (cow, yak, camel) is used as a fuel. Clearly the "coal" is not "charcoal".

Page 290 - [p. 192] "'"If you would seek peace, prepare for war."'" From the 4th/5th century Roman writer Vegetius: "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum" -- "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war."

Page 291 [p. 193]- "cos I've seen the pictures in that book The Perfumed Allotment, that Corporal Angua was reading." See annotation for page 160.

Page 292 - The line about agony aunts Dot and Sadie is a reference to women newspaper columnists who give advice to people who write in with personal problems, but generally not of an explicit sexual nature as alluded to in this context.

Page 292 - I should imagine they'd give you a cigarette.....and a nice sunny wall to standing front of." Vetinari is describing a prisoner being put in front of a firing squad.

Page 294 - "Something howled out there in the desert night" Foreshadowing that Angua is following them.

Page 295 - Vimes lights his cigar in the night and is immediately shot at. Shooting at the glowing light of a cigarette (which is obviously in someone's mouth and therefore a good target) is a common strategy of snipers during war time.

Page 310 [p. 204] "'"Gulli, Gulli and Beti"'"

The troop of entertainers that our heroes become is modelled on the old time Music-Hall team of Wilson, Kepple and Betty, popular English music hall performers in the mid 20th Century, whose act included 'The Sand Dance'. There's also a nice resonance of names with the Paul Simon song 'Call Me Al':

And if you'll be my bodyguard,

I can be your long lost pal,

And I can call you Betty,

and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al.

Page 313 - "A figure appeared between the dunes, riding on a camel. His white robes fluttered in the breeze." Pratchett draws frequent parallels between Carrot and Lawrence of Arabia.

Page 318 [p. 210] "'[...] I thought that a flying column of guerrilla soldiers --'" Since getting into his flowing white robes, Carrot appears to be fast turning into Lawrence of Arabia. See also the annotations for pp. 259 and 264.

Page 321 - "What are these tin bowls supposed to be doing?" Clearly they are creating a bosum which Nobby is in no danger of ever having on his own.

Page 322-323 "Your name's going to be something like Al...Al-jibla, or something, right?" As stated before Al is the definitive article in Arabic. Jibla is a a Muslim name which means "nature" or 'natural disposition" But it also resonates with algebra which Pratchett has played with throughout the novel.

Page 325 - "Keeping the patrician alive was almost certainly the only way to avoid a brief cigarette in the sunshine. " Colon might not have understood Vetinari's cigarette and wall reference on page 292 but he certainly gets it now.

Page 327 [p. 215] "'Egg, melon! Melon, egg!'" Vetinari's patter seems to be based on that of the fez-wearing British comedian Tommy Cooper.

Page 328 "I meant no offense, oh, doe-eyed one" to which Nobby as Beti replies "Oh? Pastry faced, am I?" Pratchett is playing on the term of endearment doe (deer) and dough (pastry).

Page 329 - "The women in the crowd seemed to be disappointed by the sudden curtailment of the performance." The performance being Nobby/Beti kicking the man who insulted him/her in the "forks". In many Islamic societies women are subservient, forced to cover themselves and are treated as second class citizens to men - men who have little to suggest they deserve a higher status, all because "it is written". So not surprisingly, here and in Nobby/Beti's later encounter with the women, they are thrilled to have the males 'put down'. Pratchett plays with the place of women in the Klatchian society repeatedly in this section. Nobby/Beti is denied access to the pub (no women allowed) and says "just because I'm the woman around here I'm supposed to accept (being treated as an inferior)" as well as "I've only been a woman for ten minutes and I already hate you male bastards". Similarly, the women all retreat into themselves when Colon appears "a man".

Page 335 - The Guild of Seamstresses are, in the politically-correct language of the modern Ankh-Morpork, ladies of negotiable affection a euphemism used in 19th century Roundworld as well. They are led by Rosie Palm who is referenced on the following page as are the Agony Aunts Dotsie and Sadie see annotation page 292.

Page 338 [p. 223] "'En al Sams la Laisa'" This is, as Vetinari later translates on page 352 , almost-Arabic for "where the sun shines not". which ties in with Colon's words to Lord Rust to "put it where the sun doesn't shine" earlier in the book.

Page 340 - Nobby's joke telling to the women of Klatch includes one about a "ki...sultan who was afraid his wife ...one of his wives....would be unfaithful to him while he was away..... well he went and saw the wise old blacksmith..."

The joke in question goes as follows:

A jealous king was about to go on a long journey but was afraid that his queen would be unfaithful to him while he was away. So he summoned his best blacksmith and ordered him to create a device that was going to provide protection from any penetration to his queen. The ingenious blacksmith made an invention that would split in half anything that would dare to penetrate the queens genitals. The king, well satisfied and assured, locked the device on the queen and left the kingdom. After six months, the king returned from his expedition and immediately ordered that all the male soldiers and servants living in the palace, line up in front of him and remove their pants. He was horrified to find that all the penises were severed, except of one of his most loyal servants. "Since you were the only one that stayed loyal to your king! Tell me what do you wish and I will grant you!" said the king. The loyal servant replied, "Youth highnethh I dont wanthh nothithngthh !"

Page 340 [p. 224] When Nobby as Beti is telling stories s/he says "'Oh, I've got a thousand and one of 'em.'" This is in reference to The Thousand and One Nights the best known, in the west, of Arabic literature, including the Tales of Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor. See annotation for Page 277 [p. 183]

Nobby's version would appear to be rather more PG-rated.

Page 340 [p. 224] "'Especially the one about the man who went into the tavern with the very small musician.'" This joke is also used on p. 195 of Feet of Clay .

This joke, as told by on alt.fan.pratchett, goes like this:

This Klatchian walked into a pub carrying a small piano. He puts in on the bar and has a few drinks. When it comes time to pay up he says to the publican, "I bet you double or nothing I can show you the most amazing thing you ever saw."

"Okay, but I warn you, I've seen some weird stuff."

The Klatchian takes out a tiny stool, which he sits in front of the piano. He then reaches into his robes and pulls out a box, about a foot long, with tiny air-holes in it. He takes off the lid and inside is a tiny man, fast asleep. As the lid opens he wakes up. Instantly he jumps to the piano and plays a perfect rendition of 'The Shades of Ankh-Morpork'! Then, as everyone in the bar is clapping, he jumps back into the box and closes the lid.

"Wow!" The publican says, and wipes the slate clean. "If I give you another drink, could you do it again?" The Klatchian agrees. This time the little man plays the Hedgehog song, to thunderous applause.

"I gotta ask, where did you get that?"

"Well, a few months ago I was travelling across the deserts of Klatch, when I suddenly came across a glass bottle. I picked it up and rubbed it and lo and behold, out popped a Genie. For some reason it was holding a curved bone to his ear and talking to it."

"'Genie,' I said to him, 'I have freed you, and in return I ask only three wishes.'"

"'Huh?' The genie said, looking at me for the first time. 'Oh, OK, three, whatever.' He then started talking to the bone again."

"'Genie, I would like a million bucks!' I said to him."

"Did you get it?"

"Not exactly. The genie kept talking to the bone and he waved one of his hands. Instantly, I was surrounded by a million ducks. Then they flew away."

"What was your second wish?"

"I said to him: 'I want to be the ruler the world!' the Genie was still talking to his bone, but he waved his free hand and a piece of wood appeared, with inches marked on it."

"Oh, a ruler. It sounds like the genie wasn't paying much attention. Did you get your third wish?"

"Let me put it like this: do you really think I asked for a twelve-inch pianist?"

Page 340 "and that's pretty hard to translate (the above joke)" said Nobby. Because they don't really know what a piano is in Klatch. But it turns out there's this kind of stringed...." The instrument to which Nobby is referring is a lute like instrument called in Arabic the عود "oud" which sounds similar (about as similar as pianist and penis) to the Arabic word for penis which is eudw عض or organ. a very clever Pratchett pun which is easy to miss.

Page 340 "And it was very interesting about the man with his arms and legs in plaster", said Netal. "Yeah, and they laughed even though they don't have the same kind of doorbells here." said Nobby. Plaster is a British term for the North American cast.

This joke goes as follows:

A woman who is tired of living alone, decides to put an ad in the local paper. She asks for three things: 1. A man who will treat her nicely, 2. A man who won't leave her, and 3. A man who is good in bed. Several weeks go by without an answer and the woman despairs that there is no man out there that meets those standards. Then, the doorbell rings and she opens it to find a man in a wheelchair with his arms and legs in a cast. He says, "I'm here about the ad in the paper. As you can see, I have broken both my arms, so I can't beat you, and I have broken both my legs and am in a wheelchair, so I can't leave you." The woman is skeptical, and asks, "Yeah, but are you good in bed?" The man answers, "How do you think I rang the doorbell?"

Page 342 "You don't have minarets in Ur?, Colon is asked to which he replies, "Er-" This Pratchett pun is a bit more obvious than the pianist joke.

Page 345 - When the Patrician goes up the tower to rescue the donkey and the crowd hears the clip clop of hooves, one says, "He's probably banging a couple of coconut shells together" which is a reference to the scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail where the knights have no horses but fake it by making a clip clop sound with coconuts instead.

Page 346 [p. 227] "'Donkey, minaret,' said Lord Vetinari. 'Minaret, donkey.' 'Just like that?'"

Another Tommy Cooper reference (see also the annotation for p. 215).

Page 346 [p. 227] Vetinari says to the cynic in the crowd, "Can you think of any reason that I would go around with an inflatable donkey?" and adds "One that you wouldn't mind explaining to your own dear mother." The obvious reference is sexual to a blow up sex doll which you clearly wouldn't want to explain to your or anyone else's mother.

Page 348 [p. 229] "'He had a city named after him...'" The city Tacticum named after the Ankh-Morpork general Tacticus who conquered the area is a parallel to Alexandria named after Alexander the Great. Tacticus is also referred to as the man who was outnumbered 10 to 1 when he took the Pass of Al Ibi mounted on elephants, a comparison to Hannibal crossing the Alps.

Page 350 [p. 230] "A statue must have stood here [...] Now it had gone, and there were just feet, broken off at the ankles."

This is a reference to Shelley's sonnet Ozymandias. See the annotation for p. 271/259 of Pyramids .

Page 355 - "does Mr. Dibbler still sell his horrible sausages inna bun?" asks 71 Hour Ahmed. For those new to Pratchett's works, Cut- Me-Own-Throat Diibbler is a recurring character and notorious conman throughout the Discworld series.

Page 357 - 71 Hour Ahmed says to Vimes "No the important thing Sir Samuel is what someone wants you to think" He is explaining a typical double and triple agent scenario when Vimes sees the crime scene of Ossie's murder. The clues lead to it being a Klatchian, but are so obvious that Vimes believes that is a setup to distract him from the "fact" that the murderer is from Ankh-Morpork, when in reality Vimes is being led to believe that it is an Ankh-Morpork assassin pretending to be Klatchian not a Klatchian as is really the case.(confused?).

Page 363 - "An' if your foot caught in something, it was always best not to look and see what it was". This is a reference to horrors of trench warfare in WWI where bodies, limbs and men vanished into the mud, often resurfacing when someone stepped on the remains.

Page 368 Sergeant Willikins, Vimes' butler mentions that his company has had nothing to eat because the mutton barrels had exploded from the gas inside them. Rotten meat was a common problem in both the army and Royal Navy with unscrupulous victuallers making profits by selling inedible food to the services knowing that by the time the scam was discovered the army or navy would be in the field or at sea and unable to get reparation.

Page 369 Further reference is made about a famous charge where everyone is killed, a parallel to the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade immortalized by Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson. After this reference a series of more and more preposterous victories is recounted ending in the single-handed victory of Baron Mimbledrone over the army of the Plum Pudding Country where he eats their Sultana - a pun on Sultan (ruler) and Sultana, a grape variety which originated in the Ottoman empire and which is used as a type of raisin. The name "MImbledrone" combines "Nimble" and "mumble" with "drone" which has connotations of somebody who is a bumbler and a follower much like the leaders of the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Page 370 - "shower of boiled lobsters" - another reference to odd things raining out of the sky.

Page 370 - Rust says, "There's nothing wrong with 'em man. Beautifully lined up." This reference to the Ankh-Morpork army's disposition draws a parallel to the famous British "thin red line" which worked brilliantly when faced with another row of men on the other side but was a dismal failure when faced with guerilla tactics or mounted troops that attacked from the sides as Lieutenant Hornett correctly observes. The whole dialogue with Rust demonstrates the inflexible traditional values of the hidebound Ankh-Morpork and by inference, British, army that refused to adapt to changing conditions.

Page 371 [p. 243] "We were going to sail into Klatch and be in Al-Khali by teatime, drinking sherbet with pliant young women in the Rhoxi."

A similar line was used by British officers in the First World War who encouraged their men to go over the top, with "We'll be eating tea and cakes in Berlin at teatime." (Captain Blackadder observed irritably that "Everyone wants to eat out as soon as they get there".) The Rhoxi is an obvious play on the various Roxy nightclubs and this reference is used in Pyramids as well.

Page 374 [p. 245] "'That's "Evil Brother-in-Law of a Jackal",' said Ahmed." See Pyramids for the Discworld convention on the naming of camels.

Page 374 -There are many parallels in the book between Lawrence of Arabia, both book and man. Carrot in the desert has a strong resemblance in action to Lawrence of Arabia as he takes charge and organizes the men.

Page 376 [p. 246] "Fortune favours the brave" See annotation on page 264.

Page 376 [p. 246] "'That is a reason to field such a contemptible little army?'" In 1914, the Kaiser apparently made a similar observation of the British Expeditionary Force sent to oppose the German advance through Belgium. The soldiers later proudly adopted the name 'Old Contemptibles'. See also the annotation for Page 238 p. [p. 158].

Page 378 Klatchian soldiers are referred to as the finest in the world when led by white officers - another reference to TE Lawrence leading the Arabs.

Page 380 [p. 249] "'That's a Make-Things-Bigger device, isn't it? [...] They were invented only last year.'" The telescope should be invented by Leonard of Quirm given its name but in Ankh-Morpork tradition it was actually the work of Ponder Stibbons at Unseen University Soul Music (p. 137). The fact that the Klatchian, General Ashal, inherited his from his grandfather reflects the same ethnocentricity found in Roundworld in western societies who are sadly underinformed about the advances made by so-called underdeveloped countries - China, Arab nations and India in particular.

Page 388 - Vimes says, "That's right! It runs in the family." He is of course referring to his ancestor, Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes who murdered the last king of Ankh-Morpork, Lorenzo the Kind (who wasn't).

Page 393 [p. 257] "'And Captain Carrot is organizing a football match.'" Carrot's organization of a football match between the Klatchian and Ankh-Morpork troops is based on the Christmas Day truce and football match between the Germans and British troops in 1914 in No man's land. Pratchett used this reference in the novel Pyramids as well when the Ephebian and Tsortean soldiers meet. Both sides in WWI made sure that this did not become an annual event - fraternizing with the enemy grounds for execution.

Page 397 - [p. 259] "'Why don't you take some well-earned rest, Sir Samuel? You are [...] a man of action. You deal in swords and chases, and facts. Now, alas, it is the time for the men or words, who deal in promises and mistrust and opinions. For you the war is over. Enjoy the sunshine. I trust we shall all be returning home shortly.'" At the end of the David Lean's 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, Prince Feisal tells Lawrence: "There's nothing further here, for a warrior. We drive bargains, old men's work. Young men makes wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Old men make the peace and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution."

Page 398 - Ahmed says to Vimes, "And that man, I believe, is your king?" When Vimes responds "no", Ahmed says, "The I am Queen Pumjitrum of Sumtri." Carrot is in fact the heir to the Ankh-Morpork throne but has chosen to ignore this claim and remain a copper.

Page 404 [p. 264] "'The trick is not to mind that it hurts.'" Vimes holds a hot coal in his hand and dares Rust to do the same, Early in the film Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is sitting in an office drawing maps and talking to his compatriot about the Bedouin attacking the Turks. Another man joins them and Lawrence lights a cigarette, putting the match out with his fingers. The newcomer tries the same trick, but drops it.. Both Vimes and Lawrence say, "The trick is not to mind that it hurts."

Page 408 Nobby says "Yeah, they'll laugh at the other foot, eh?" Nobby is a wizard at mixing metaphors, in this case "The shoes on the other foot" and "they'll laugh out of the other side of their face."

Page 409 - "At one point there was a fall of anchovies" More unusual things falling out of the sky.

Page 409 - "On der other han', everyone is still breathin'"Detritus says. To which Reg Shoe replies "that is a vitalist remark" Pratchett pokes fun here at the politically correct. Reg Shoe as a zombie is definitely not alive and therefore not displaying any vital signs.

Page 409 - Angua says "You're talking to someone who knows every major brand of flea powder in Anhk-Morpork, Reg" A reference to Angua in werewolf form being susceptible to the same afflictions as other canines.

Page 410 [p. 268] "'Say it ain't so, Mr Vimes!'"

'Shoeless' Joe Jackson was the star player of the Chicago White Sox during the 1919 World Series. When it emerged that he had (allegedly) accepted bribes to throw the series, the fans' collective reaction was of shocked incredulity: the line "Say it ain't so, Joe!" became the canonical form of begging someone to deny an allegation that is too shocking to accept, but too convincing to disbelieve.

Page 413 "Traditionally traitors are dragged to their place of execution on a hurdle". This is true in Roundworld as well as Discworld. A hurdle was a wooden frame usually horse-drawn. Pratchett plays with the various meanings on hurdle as welll as drawn when Vetinari asks Carrotif he is any good with a pencil and mentions that there is a sports shop in Sheer Street. "Drawn and quartered" was the process of dragging a person to the gallows by horse (drawn) and quartered meant the body was cut into 4 sections with an arm or leg in each section, usually by pulling the person apart with a horse tied to each limb and pulling (sometimes before death, sometimes after). It has nothing to do with being able to draw with a pencil. And the sports shop would sell hurdles for jumping over as in high hurdles or steeplechase.

Page 432 [p. 282] "'It is a far, far better thing I do now [...]'" Nobby's line is from the end of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities when Sydney Carton, good-natured layabout and occasional drunk, goes to the guillotine instead of his true love's sweetheart. The book's famous last line is not a direct quote from Sydney (since he's already dead by then), but rather what the narrator feels he might have said: "If he had given any utterance to his [thoughts], and they were prophetic, they would have been these: '[...] It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.'".

The names of the Ankh-Morpork war ships Indestructible and Indolence are takeoffs on a long list of ships of the Royal Navy starting with "In..." such as Indefatigable, Inscrutable, Indomitable, Inveterate, etc.

Vetinari's magic trick where he says the line 'Egg, melon, melon, egg' is a clear reference to the British comedic magician Tommy Cooper who had a similar patter but using a glass instead of an melon, and also was famous for wearing a fez....

Appearances;

Characters:

• 71-hour Ahmed
• Angua
• Prince Cadram
• Fred Colon
• Detritus
• Lt Hornett
• Carrot Ironfoundersson
• Cheery Littlebottom
• Nobby Nobbs
• Leonard of Quirm
• Lord Rust
• Reg Shoe
• Havelock Vetinari
• Samuel Vimes

Translations

• Jingo (Swedish)
• Шовинист (Bulgarian)
• Fliegende Fetzen (Flying shreds, a description for a very intense conflict - German)