A witch by noonlight (Terry Pratchett: A Hat Full of Sky)

By an amazing coincidence, the Horse carved on the Chalk is remarkably similar to the Uffington White Horse, which in this world is carved on the downlands near the village of Uffington in southwest Oxfordshire. It’s 374 feet long, several thousand years old and carved on the hill in such a way that you can only see all of it in one go from the air. This suggests that: a) it was carved for the gods to see; or, b) flying was invented a lot earlier that we thought; or, c) people used to be much, much taller.

A Hat Full of Sky er kanskje min favoritt-Tiffany. Den har fantastiske scener med Nac Mac Feegle kledd ut som en mann i normalstørrelse (knærne og magen slåss høylytt, men siden spetakkelet villig deler ut gullmynter fra gravhaugen deres, aksepterer den ene etter den andre ham som rik og eksentrisk). Den har den skrekkelige Annagramma Hawkins og undersåttene hennes. (‘Annagramma’s the leader, then, is she?’ said Tiffany. ‘Um, no. Witches don’t have leaders, Annagramma says.’) Og ikke minst har den de mest fantastiske utvekslinger mellom Tiffany og den fullt utviklede Granny Weatherwax i all sin prakt, to alen av samme stykke. (They had argued, of course. But Mistress Weatherwax had made a nasty personal remark. It was: You’re eleven.) Og jeg liker så godt Pratchetts ungdomsbokstemme – enklere, varmere og mer inderlig enn i voksenbøkene, men ikke noe mindre morsom for det. (Never wish. Especially don’t wish upon a star, which is astronomically stupid.)