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Witches

Annagramma Hawkin was introduced in A Hat Full of Sky and is a peer of Tiffany Aching, whom she initially disdained. She was a trainee witch of Mrs. Letice Earwig and bossed other people around, trying to take on the role of being the "leader" of the coven of apprentice witches that Tiffany Aching belonged to mainly on the basis that she had the tallest hat, the loudest voice and was bossy. Much like her mentor, she was extremely snobbish and had strong opinions about what a witch should or should not be, particularly in regard to believing that Granny Weatherwax just 'messes around' with people's heads to make people think she is great. Later in the novel, she confides to Tiffany that, contrary to what her behavior might leads people to think, her family was quite poor, even by Lancre standards, not even having their own cottage (living in a rented one).

During the events of Wintersmith, Annagramma was assigned her own cottage, taking over from the late Miss Treason; getting the steading she coveted. Initially, she was badly unprepared for the real demands of being resident witch for a village and she turned out to be rather incompetent at running the steading. She knew nothing about helping in childbirth, dealing with the aches and pains and little problems of the villagers and refused to look the part, leading to the villagers questioning whether she was a real witch. Fortunately Tiffany and the other apprentice coven members helped her out, going on her rounds with her, helping with the new mothers and, most importantly, teaching her about Boffo - that image and appearances are everything to a witch. She received a crash-course in all the things that Mrs Earwig hadn't taught her, which when added to her natural strengths helped her to make a success of herself as a witch - despite Mrs. Earwig, not because of her. With the help of Miss Treason's Boffo catalogue (conveniently left for her by Tiffany) and its fake warts, witch masks and other witch accoutrements, she soon looked the part and earned the respect of the villagers who believed they had a 'real witch' to look after them. It was revealed that her arrogance may in part have been an overreaction to a deep insecurity about dealing with situations she could not control. At the same time, the other young witches received a lesson in practical Boffo - that if only one witch is seen to fail, this casts doubt over the competence of all witches everywhere, and this must not happen, as Respect is everything - The sort of lesson which can only be learned, not taught. It is revealed that Granny Weatherwax had suggested that the cottage be taken over by Tiffany knowing that Tiff was too young and Annagramma would be accepted instead (had Granny suggested any other witch, Annagramma would have lost the cottage). In effect, Esme Weatherwax scored yet another quiet, discreet, but very definite victory of her own against Mrs Earwig, who must have been fuming. Granny later said, when she learned that Tiffany had been helping Annagramma, that she would have expected nothing less, leading Tiffany to conclude that the whole affair had been a ploy to prove to the other witches that Mrs. Earwig's kind of witchcraft didn't work. Annagramma came into her own when she assisted Tiffany by temporarily dispelling the Wintersmith's physical form with a fireball and ordering her broomstick to carry Tiffany away while he re-formed himself.

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Annagramma takes her name from the common girl's name 'Anna' and 'gramma' (an elderly female relative which in previous generations in Roundworld or in Discworld might have been a witch). Her name also contains 'anagram' (a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once) which is appropriate given the fact that Annagramma 'reforms' herself from a very shallow and vacuous young girl into a competent village witch.

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