Paul Kidby is an illustrator, sculptor and artists who worked with Terry Pratchett for 13 years, designing the cover of his Discworld books and more. Many of the originals contained in this book are at the ‘HisWorld’ exhibition in Salisbury Museum.
The “Discworld Imaginarium” is a collection of some of his Discworld paintings and drawings from throughout those years, in one gloriously big and shiny book.
My visualisation of the Discworld isn’t exactly like his, nor will it be like yours or indeed like Pratchett’s himself. But Pratchett said
“Paul sees things my way about seventy-five percent of the time”
and I’d certainly concur with that. His images of the Librarian, Rincewind, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Og and the Wee Free Men especially chime with my own.
The whole book is superb, much more than a ‘coffee table book’ with vivid reproductions of Kidby’s acrylic paintings and a number of graphite drawings too, rich with detail. I’d love to have a couple of these hanging on my wall. There are so many good ones, it’s hard to pick favourites. One has to be ‘Quiet Please’ which shows the Librarian reading, and looking as most of us do when interrupted.
And the other is ‘Death with kitten’ because Death’s relationship with cats (and man) is something I definitely understand.
If you’re a fan I would absolutely recommend this book – although if you’re a fan I suspect you might have it already! It’s a great tribute to Sir Terry and appreciation of Paul Kidby’s work.
Related reads
I bought the final Discworld Novel
An Open Fan Letter to Sir Terry Pratchett
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman
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