Night Watch

This page is about the novel NIght Watch. For the painting by Rembrandt, see Night Watch (painting) or The Wikipedia Page.

Night Watch is the 29th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, published in 2002. The working title for this book was The Nature of the Beast, but this was discarded when Frances Fyfield published a book with exactly that title in the UK in late 2001. The protagonist of the novel is Sir Samuel Vimes, commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. A five-part radio adaptation of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from February 27 2008 - it featured Philip Jackson as Sam Vimes and Carl Prekopp as young Sam, and referenced the similar theme of a policeman unexpectedly being sent back in time from the series Life on Mars.

Paul Kidby's cover parodies the famous Rembrandt painting The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch, more commonly known as The Night Watch. This is the first main-sequence Discworld novel not to have a cover by Josh Kirby who had passed away. The actual painting by Rembrandt is used as the back cover illustration. In Kidby's cover, the older Sam Vimes is in the place of Frans Banning Cocq and Sam as a young man is in the place of Wiliem van Ruytenburch. In both the original painting and Kidby's illustration, three figures are illuminated to force the viewers eye in their direction, however in Kidby's illustration it is not the figure in the position of Rembrandt's woman crouching down and holding a chicken (to the left of Frans Bannig Cocq) - that figure to the left of the elder Vimes is the young urchin Nobby Nobbs wearing an oversized watch coat and boots. Instead, the key third illuminated figure is Sweeper (Lu Tsi) in the saffron robe immediately in front and to the left of Nobby in the position of the watchmen carrying an arquebus in Rembrandt's original. The villain Carcer is shown behind Sweeper with two knives. Kidby has kept the general positioning of Rembrandt's figures and flow of the painting without actually inserting every figure so the Sweeper's broom describes the same line as the arquebus in the original. Kidby pays tribute to the late artist, Josh Kirby, who did all the previous Discworld covers; appropriately placing him in the picture in the position where Rembrandt painted himself. He is in the back, with just part of his face showing, between Reg Shoe (in the white shirt waving the flag) and Waddy. There is an animal in the bottom-right of both works; in Rembrandt's it is a dog which in 1975 was badly slashed in an act of vandalism. Kidby has instead inserted a swamp dragon, a reference to Vimes' wife Sybil, who breeds them.

The exact identities of the characters on the cover are not exactly known, but are believed to be (roughly from left to right);

• Henry The Hamster (with arm in cast, signed "with love from John Keel".)
• Three Unknown Watchmen
• Carcer (holding twin knives)
• Dr. Lawn (holding turkey baster)
• Lu-Tze/Sweeper (in orange)
• Havelock Vetinari (in background with hands together)
• Nobby Nobbs (in black; holding spoon)
• Reg Shoe (in background; holding flag)
• Josh Kirby (original Discworld cover artist; behind Reg Shoe)
• Billy Wiglet (in foreground; face obscured by helmet)
• Two Unknown Watchmen (in background; one possibly Ned Coates)
• John Keel/Sam Vimes (in foreground; with eyepatch)
• Fred Colon (in background, behind John Keel and an Unknown Watchman)
• Unknown Watchman (possibly Ned Coates)
• Horace Nancyball (in background; eyes obscured by helmet)
• Sam Vimes (in foreground; holding crossbow)
• Cecil Clapman (in foreground; keys hanging from belt)
• Dai Dickins (in foreground)
• Unknown Dragon
• Unknown Watchman
• Findthee Swing (in black; holding ruler)
• Unknown Figure
• Unknown Watchman

Publisher's summary

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch had it all. But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck...

Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down a murderer, teach his younger self how to be a good copper, and change the outcome of a bloody rebellion. There's a problem: if he wins, he's got no wife, no child, no future.

A Discworld Tale of One City, with a full chorus of street urchins, ladies of negotiable affection, rebels, secret policemen, and other children of the revolution.

Truth! Justice! Freedom!

And a Hard-boiled Egg!

Plot summary

On the morning of the 30th anniversary of the Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May (and as such the anniversary of the death of John Keel, Vimes' hero and former mentor), Sam Vimes is caught in a magical storm (briefly implied to be connected to the events of Thief of Time) while pursuing Carcer Dun, a notorious criminal. He awakens to find that he has been rescued by Miss Palm (whom Vimes knows as Mrs Palm, Head of the Guild of Seamstresses). He determines that he has somehow been sent back in time.

Vimes's first idea is to ask the wizards at Unseen University to send him home, but before he can act on this, he is arrested for breaking curfew by a younger version of himself. Incarcerated in a cell beside his own, he finds Carcer, who after being released joins the Unmentionables, the secret police carrying out the paranoid whims of the Patrician of the time, Lord Winder.

When he is taken to be interrogated by the captain, time is frozen by Lu-Tze, who tells Vimes what has happened and that he must assume the identity of his mentor Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel (who was to have arrived that day but was murdered by Carcer). It is stated that the event which caused Vimes and Carcer to be sent into the past was a major temporal shattering. Vimes then returns to the office, time restarts and he convinces the captain that he is Keel.

Young Vimes believes Vimes to be Keel, allowing Vimes to teach Young Vimes the lessons for which Vimes idolised Keel. Essentially this means that Vimes taught and idolised himself, not Keel, although alternate histories and the "Trousers of Time" mean this may not be the case. "You were indeed taken under the wing of one John Keel, a watchman from Pseudopolis," says Lu Tze. "He was a real person. He was not you." Lu-Tze also makes reference to the idea that the Monks of History have created an alternate present in which the events of the novel happen.

The novel climaxes in the Revolution, hinted at since the start of the book. Vimes, taking command of the watchmen, successfully avoids the major bloodshed erupting all over the city and manages to keep his part of it relatively peaceful. After dealing with the Unmentionables' headquarters he has his haphazard forces barricade a few streets to keep people safe from the fighting between rebels and soldiers. However, the barricades are gradually pushed forward during the night to encompass the surrounding streets until Vimes finds himself in control of a significant part of the city.

The ruler, Lord Winder, is effectively assassinated by the young Assassin's Guild student Havelock Vetinari when he influences what seems to be a heart attack, and the new Patrician Lord Snapcase calls for a complete amnesty. However, he sees Keel as a threat and sends Carcer and the palace guard to murder the Night Watch. Several policemen (the ones who died when the barricade fell in the original timeline) are killed in the battle; Vimes manages to fight off the attack until he can grab Carcer, at which point they are returned to the future and Keel's body is placed in the timeline Vimes has just left, to tie things up, since in the "real" history, Keel died in that fight.

Vimes' son is born, with the help of Doctor 'Mossy' Lawn (whom Vimes met while in the past), and Vimes finally arrests Carcer, promising him a fair trial before he's hanged. A subsequent conversation with Lord Vetinari reveals that the Patrician knows Vimes took Keel's place. He proposes that the old Watch House at Treacle Mine Road (where Keel was sergeant, and which was destroyed by the dragon in Guards! Guards!) be rebuilt.

Themes

There are many similarities between Pratchett's Night Watch and Victor Hugo's Les Miserables but it is simplistic to suggest that creating parallels between the two works as Pratchett did between Maskerade and Phantom of the Operas is his entire focus - revolutions, evil governments, etc are common to the world and in literature, not just to a single novel's depiction of the 1832 Paris Uprising. In Les Miserables, Valjean is a good man whose crime is to steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her family. In Night Watch, Carcer is a murderous psychopath who later in the novel claims that his original crime was to steal a loaf of bread but, based on his willingness to tell the listener whatever is necessary to avoid punishment, this is likely untrue. Carcer, like Jean Valjean fleeing Javert, is running from the law in the form of Vimes. Both Javert and Vimes are obsessed with justice; Javert interpreting that to mean the punishment of the guilty, which eventually leads to his suicide when he can no longer reconcile his beliefs with the reality of capturing a good man. Vimes, on the other hand defines justice as the protection of the innocent. Javert joins the revolutionaries on the barricades to betray and defeat them while Vimes organizes the building of the barricades to protect the people. In Les Miserables, Valjean tries to save a prostitute, Fantine, and when she dies he promises to take care of her daughter. When Vimes is sent back into the past, he is saved by a prostitute, Rosie Palm (in British slang masturbation is called 'visiting Mrs Palm and her five daughters'. In both novels, a street urchin plays an important role in the rebellion. in Les Miserables, Gavroche dies, while in Night Watch, Nobby survives and becomes a member of the Watch. Both rebellions are "led" by impassioned revolutionaries in frilly shirts who take a long time to die; Reg Shoe coming back in Discworld as a zombie.

One of the central themes of the novel is the concept that "nothing changes." This is shown in two major ways: First, that even though there is a revolution to overthrow the current patrician, when the revolution is finished people go on with their lives exactly as they had done before, and the government continues behaving as it had done before. This theme is explored earlier in Pratchett's novel, Guards! Guards! when Veteneri says to Vimes, "The only thing the good people are good at is overthrowing the bad people.  And you’re good at that, I’ll grant you. But the trouble is that it’s the only thing you’re good at.   One day it’s the ringing of the bells and the casting down of the evil tyrant, and the next it’s everyone sitting around complaining that ever since the tyrant was overthrown no-one’s been taking out the trash.  Because the bad people know how to plan.  It’s part of the specification, you might say.  Every evil tyrant has a plan to rule the world.  The good people don’t seem to have the knack." In short, the drawback to any revolution in history has always been that political opportunists triumph over idealists. Whether the country becomes a democracy or remains a dictatorship, the overriding principle of its leadership becomes the desire for power rather than the welfare of the state. As Pete Townshend of the Who wrote in his song "Won't Get Fooled Again" , "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." This line is used near the end of the novel by Slant when he says, "Ave! Cuci novo, similis duci seneci" and "Ave Bossa nova, similis bossa seneca!".

The second way that nothing changes is that while the past has been slightly changed by Vimes and Carcer, the present remains exactly the same. Pratchett has explored the effects of parallel universes in many of his novels, especially in his Long Earth series written with Stephen Baxter.

Another theme is the idea of acting in a way that you would want to become. Vimes has to teach his younger self about good police work, and in so doing has to be very careful about not doing things that he considers to be over the line (such as murdering unarmed men). It's interesting to note that when Vimes returns to the present, he continues to think of the younger version of himself and how that younger version would see what he is doing, so that he must continue to act in moral ways.

A third theme is the way evil things are done by ordinary people who don't have the guts to say no, whether it is the Night Watchmen taking bribes and beating people up prior to Vimes/Keels arrival because everyone does it, or the Patrician justifying the torture of ordinary citizens by the Unmentionables, or the city leaders blindly instituting martial law and charging into the people on horseback. Vimes/Keel refuses over and over to fall into this trap (keeping the beast inside) and ultimately sides with the rebels. Carcer, a "pathological psychopath crook" falls naturally into the role of "pathological psychopath leader" of the Unmentionables and the rest just fall in line. There are plenty of parallels in Roundworld, from the Nazis in WWII to the American soldiers involved in the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1968, the genocidal slaughters in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodian and Myanmar to name but a few.

Popular References and Annotations

The motto of the City Watch is "FABRICATI DIEM PVNC" which translates in its mock Latin to Make my day, punk, Clint Eastwood's iconic line from the movie Dirty Harry.

Page 11 - The line 'gilt by association' is an obvious pun on the gold (gilt) ornamentation on Vimes' uniform and the concept of guilt by association (ie. a class traitor because Vimes is now of the upper crust).

Page 16 - Sergeant Stronginthearm is a dwarf watchman in the Ankh-Morpork police. His name has parallels to the Roundworld surname of Armstrong.

Page 16 - Sergeant Detritus leads his group of new recruits with a marching song and is referred to as a "jody".

"Now we sing this stupid song!

Sing it as we march along!

Why we sing it we don't know!

We can't make der words rhyme prop'ly!

Sound off! One Two!

Sound off! Many Lots!

Sound off! Er...what?"

In the armed services, a military cadence or cadence call is a traditional call-and-response work song where one person sings the lines and the rest of the group responds. It is sung while running or marching to keep the cadence and keep spirits up. In the United States, these cadences are sometimes called jody calls or jodies, after Jody, a recurring character in many traditional cadences; Jody refers to the man with whom a serviceman's wife/girlfriend cheats, while he is deployed. Usually the songs poke fun at other regiments, the enemy, army life and what the soldiers' girlfriends/wives are up to while the soldier is away in the army.

Page 16 - The line, "Sammies, they were called, [...]" is a reference to the London 'Bobbies'. Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister in the 1830s and 1840s, organized the metropolitan police force in London, operating out of Scotland Yard. The colloquial term for police in Britain, 'bobbies', is taken from Peel's name, as is 'Peelers', an older nickname. When Vimes is sent back into the past he gives his name as "Keel" a take off on Sir Robert's name.

Page 18 - "We know your heart is in the right place" says Vimes, to which Igor replies "They are in the right places, sir". This and subsequent lines are a reference to the Igor's ability to recreate and repair human life, since Igors play a Dr. Frankenstein's assistant type role in the Discworld and always have a supply of spare body parts should they be needed. Vimes response where he doesn't miss a beat is another Pratchett play on words - since they are talking about hearts and hearts beat.

Page 21 - The words on John Keel's grave "How do they rise up" is a reference to a revolutionary song that Pratchett wrote and uses later in the novel. The rhythm/tune is based on the German folk song "Oh Du Lieber Augustin" attributed to Max Augustin, who was a popular balladeer and entertainer in Vienna in the mid 1600s. This song originated in Vienna during the Plague period of 1768-1769. Legend has it that while drunk, Augustin fell in the gutter and passed out only to be mistaken for a dead man by the gravediggers patrolling the city for dead plague victims. They dumped him, along with his bagpipes which they presumed were infected, into a pit filled with the bodies of other plague victims outside the city walls. When Augustin awoke, he couldn't get out of the deep mass grave so played his bag pipes to attract attention. After he was rescued he became a symbol of hope for the Viennese people since he survived his night with the plague victims without ill effect. Variations on the legend suggest that he was discovered at the mortuary when he sat up which ties in to Colon's discussion with Nobby about the funeral of a Corporal Hildebiddle who "woke up just in time and banged on the lid (of his coffin)" and suggests that Pratchett was working with the latter legend. The song itself has mixed connotations; in some aspects being hymn-like "All the little angels (rising) up (to heaven)", in some aspects revolutionary - rising up to overthrown the evil government. Protests songs often have their roots in hymns.  Throughout the novel, the line is repeated, adding the various ways "they rise up" - feet, hands, knees, heads up, arse up. The use of these lines also resonates with the other expressions associated with the lines: "feet up"(relaxing), "hands up" (under arrest), "knees up" (a party or celebration as in the song 'Knees up Mother Brown') "heads up" (a warning), and "arse up" (with your rear in the air as an insult and also meaning ruined or destroyed). The unspoken one is "tits up" as in dead but "arse up" also hints at this. Pratchett changes the order that he presents the various lines from the pre-WWi English version which was used as a soldier's song given below, as the situation changes within the novel, the slackness of Vimes/Keel's watch at the beginning (feet up), to actually doing their job and making arrests (hands up), to celebrating their victory at the barricades (knees up), to the warning from Nobby and Vetinari about the attack from Carcer (heads up). to the death of Keel and the other watchmen (arse up):

All the little angels rise up, rise up,

All the little angels rise up high.

How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?

How do they rise up, rise up high?

They rise heads up, heads up, heads up,

They rise heads up, heads up high.

All the little angels rise up, rise up,

All the little angels rise up high.

How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?

How do they rise up, rise up high?

They rise knees up, knees up, knees up,

They rise knees up, knees up high.

All the little angels rise up, rise up,

All the little angels rise up high.

How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?

How do they rise up, rise up high?

They rise arse up, arse up, arse up,

They rise arse up, arseup high.

See how they rise up, rise up, rise up,

See how they rise up, rise up high.

All the little angels ascend up to Heaven

All the little angels ascend up on high

Which end up? Ascend up (ie Ass end up)

Which end up? Ascend up

All the little angels ascend up on high.

Page 22 - The line, 'None of that "comic gravedigger" stuff.' is a reference to the gravediggers in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The gravedigger in question, Legitimate First is obviously named because he was his mother's first child not born out of wedlock.

Page 24 - The zombie, Reg Shoe has brought a shovel to the graveyard to reinter himself in his grave in commemoration of his original burial.

Page 25 - The two former parts of the Dark Empire, Mouldovia and Borogravia are obvious takeoffs on the Soviet Union satellite states that became independent when that country collapsed. Mouldovia by combining Mould and Moldavia (now Moldova) and Borogravia by combining Belgravia (the affluent area of London) or Belgrade (the capital of the former Yugoslavia) and Borogoves (from the Lewis Carroll poem the Jabberwocky).

Page 26 - In reference to the invasion of Mouldavia, Vimes asks Carrot, "Whose side are we on?" which given the political nature of the novel is likely a reference to the well known union protest song made famous by Pete Seeger and written by Florence Patton Reece, "Which Side Are You On?". This reference is reinforced later in the novel when Sandra asks Rosie about Vimes/Keel, "Is he on our side?" and again when Vimes/Keel asks Ned Coates, "Whose side are you on, Ned?"

Page 26 - Carrot says"[...] the only species I've heard of there in any numbers are the kvetch, sir." Kvetch is a Yiddish verb meaning to complain or gripe.

Page 27 - The "Oblong Office" is an obvious play on the "Oval Office" of the White House.

Page 28 - The villain Carcer's name has obvious similarities to the word cancer (and he is a cancer on society) but it comes from the Latin carcerem and means jail or imprisonment (incarceration); in ancient Rome, the Carcer (pronounced Carker) was the death row cell next to the Forum. This is also the name of the villain in Charles Dicken's novel, Dombey and Son.

Page 29 - Vimes says that with Carcer you "shoot first-" and Vetinari finishes "- and ask questions later?" This was the motto of the paramilitary group, the Texas Rangers.

Page 29 - The "Bridge of Size" is a pun on the Roundworld "Bridge of Sighs" in Venice.

Page 33 - Vimes says, "They rise feet up, feet up, feet up". See the reference Page 21.

Page 33 - The old helmet on stick trick is a reference to the tactic from WW I where soldiers in the trenches would put a helmet on a stick and lift it above the trench line to draw the enemy's fire and thus provide their location for counter-fire.

Page 35 - "Whatcha doin, mifter?" is a quote (whatcha doin, Mister?) from a 1945 story by Truman Capote, The Headless Hawk. The line is also used in the 1993 movie Falling Down starring Michael Douglas.

Page 35 and following - The fight on the rooftop between Vimes and Carcer is a classic scene in action movies going back as far as King Kong in 1933 and Vertigo in 1958 and continuing through various James Bond movies in more recent years.

Page 40 - "They said afterwards that the bolt of lightning hit a clockmaker's shop in the Street of Cunning Artificers, stopping all the clocks at that instant." This is a reference to the events in Thief of Time.

Page 46 -Vimes gives his name to Rosie Palm, the Seamstress (prostitute) as Keel - John which she says is "appropriate" since John is a slang name for someone who uses a prostitute in order to remain anonymous. She then says that she will "escort" him - another reference related to her trade. Rosie Palm's name is derived from the British slang for masturbation, which is called 'visiting Mrs Palm and her five daughters'. The term 'seamstress' was used in the Roundworld as a euphemism for 'prostitute' on census forms. The occupation was extremely low paying, often attracting young females, and when the wages or lack of work were not sufficient, the women fell into the 'trade'. On census forms a clue to the real nature of the occupation can be gleaned by reviewing the number of people in a residence and the presence of an older female as head of the household - more than just a boarding house.

Page 47 - Dotsie and Sadie, the two agony aunts act as enforcers for the Seamstresses Guild. Agony aunts are women newspaper columnists who give advice to people who write in with personal problems, not usually sexual in nature (they are often seen to be a bit prudish). Dotsie's extra heavy purse and Sadie's umbrella with the parrot head are reminiscent of the the accessories of British cartoonist Giles' character Grandma (who could quite easily work as an enforcer for the Seamstresses Guild)."

Page 55 - "Privilege, which just means private law." In fact that is the precise origin of the word. There was a separate law for those who could afford it from which the word arose.

Page 59 - Vimes says, "I'll just stand with my legs apart, shall I?" Clearly, the sergeant is going to kick him in the groin but Pratchett is playing with the concept here because the legs apart stance is the position assumed by the prisoner when being searched prior to handcuffing.

Page 62 - Vimes says that Snouty "never confuses his fruit". The joke is that earlier in the conversation Snouty says, 'How do you like them bananas". The proper expression is 'How do you like them apples" so Snouty has confused his fruit in the expression.

Page 64 - Captain Tilden had, "killed more of the enemy by good if dull tactics than his own men by bad but exciting one". Pratchettt's comments here on the general ability of most military leaders is reflected in one of his footnotes in Jingo where he says, “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.”

Page 64 - 'Mr Lousy' is Lu-Tze, the Sweeper from The Thief of Time who has the ability to stop and modify time, a skill he puts to immediate use in making Vimes into Keel. The yellow robed monks have obvious parallels to Buddhist monks in Tibet and other eastern regions. Lu-Tze is one of the "History Monks (the Men In Saffron, No Such Monastery... they had many names) [...]" "Men In Saffron" is an obvious reference to the movie "Men in Black", which was in turn a reference to the original, mythical federal secret agents the movie is named after. "No Such Agency" is how Roundworld jokingly refers to the NSA, the American NSA (National Security Agency) because of their reputation for extreme secrecy and paranoia.

Page 65 - Vimes asks, "Where am I this time" as he regains consciousness. Pratchett is clearly playing with the words as Vimes points out since he has traveled in time and also doesn't know where he is because he has been unconscious.

Page 65 - "two cylinders, each as wide as a man and twice as long" are the procrastinators (cylinders of time). They resonate with the cylindrical prayer wheels found outside Buddhist temples in Tibet, etc. They are turned by the History Monks who in turn are modelled on Buddhist monks.

Page 68 - "singing a rude song about a wheelbarrow.... Hedgehogs? Custard? One string fiddles." is an obvious reference to the old song, "Molly Molone" "wheeling her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow" - with its double entendres. The hedgehog song is a reference to Nanny Ogg's well known rude drinking song, "The Hedgehog can never be buggered at all" more commonly called the Hedgehog Song. In addition, Pratchett might be giving a shout out to the Incredible String Band's Hedgehog Song. One string fiddle is slang for sexual stimulation. Custard is slang for semen or other bodily fluids released during orgasm. Custard Pie by Led Zeppelin has clear double entendre meanings regarding women's sexual organs and cunnilingus.

Page 72 - a shonky shop is a British term for a second hand store.

Page 74 - In the Garden of Inner City Tranquility, it would "take magic beans to reach the real sunshine" - a reference to the old fairy tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Page 75 - a "sonky" is a Discworld take off on the British slang for a condom, "tonkie".

Page 76 - The "Glorious Twenty-Fifth of May" parodies the name of the famous sea battle off Cape St. Vincent in 1794 between Great Britain and the First French Republic which was known as the Glorious First of June. It also parodies the kind of names revolutionary groups give to their national holidays when they take power.

Page 78 - "Sergeant Knock and Corporal Quirke and Lance-Corporal Colon" are all members of the Ankh-Morpork Watch when Vimes first joins the Watch. Corporal Quirke, later Captain, is obviously a play on Captain Kirk from Star Trek.

Page 79 - "Can't tell you that...cos of quantum"--'cos of quantum' is a running line throughout the Discworld series used to explain the unexplainable. A quantum (plural: quanta) is the smallest discrete unit of a phenomenon.

Page 80 - Qu who is the Master of Devices is an obvious reference to Q in the James Bond movies.

Page 81 - The toilet that discharge 10 million years into the past) is "saving us fourpence a week to Harry King's bucket boys". Harry King (the king of the Golden River) is the Ankh-Morpork sewage collector.

Page 82 - "The Abbot of the History Monks (the Men In Saffron, No Such Monastery... they had many names) [...]" "Men In Saffron" is a reference to the "Men in Black", likely inspired by the movie of that name (which Pratchett liked) as well as more directly referring to the original, mythical federal hush-up agents the movie is named after. "No Such Agency" is how the Roundworld American NSA (National Security Agency) is jokingly referred because of their reputation for extreme secrecy and paranoia.

Page 83 - Lu Tsi describes the action of time as like a river, then a sea, then a ball of water with the appropriate water action in each. Then he says "Currently we think it's like..." Pratchett is making a play on the two meanings of current - firstly meaning 'at this point in time' and secondly as in the current created by water flowing.

Page 85 - Sheriff Macklewheet and Sheriff Purlie are only mentioned here and play no further role in the novels.

Page 85 - "The man couldn't talk and chew gum at the same time." Supposedly Lyndon Johnson once said that President Ford couldn't fart and chew gum at the same time, after which the bowdlerized version of the phrase became common.

Page 87 - Vimes' swearing of the oath of duty includes all the brackets, punctuation and parts of the document that are supposed to be filled in by the nominee, not recited as part of the oath. This is a running joke in Discworld novels when characters are swearing oaths of allegiance, etc.

Page 91 - The  Cable Street Particulars are a pseudo-police force like the Baker Street Irregulars in Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The name is a reference to the Battle of Cable Street, a riot started between Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and anti-fascist protesters in 1936. It was a seminal point in British history in stopping Britain from swinging in the direction that Germany was taking, drawing attention to the underlying violence of the fascist movement and forcing the government to take action against its rise. The nickname of the Particulars is the Unmentionables - a reference to Eliot Ness's "Untouchables" (the Prohibition Police in Chicago, circa 1930), as well as being, in genteel British English, a euphemism for underwear and the male genitalia.

Page 91 - "The nature of the beast" is an old expression meaning something that is an essential part of the character of the person or thing that you are talking about. It first appeared in Collection of English Proverbs compiled by John Ray and published in 1678 but was used figuratively well before that time.

Page 92 - Dr. Lawn who is performing surgery says to Vimes, "Want some breakfast? There's kidneys.....Lamb" Pratchett uses this joke regarding the confusion between human and animal offal regularly, usually in regard to the Igors.

Page 94 - "they rise hands up, hands up, hands up" See reference Page 21 and 33. This time the line is hands up rather than feet up.

Page 103 - "coming here, thinking they're the bee's nose" The real expression is of course "the bee's knees". Pratchett chooses an interesting body part for his expression because 'nose' was a euphemism for the male sexual organ in literature, most famously in Nikolai Gogol's short story The Nose. The following line "We soon cut 'em down to size" suggests that perhaps Pratchett was making this reference. However, sometimes a rocket is simply a rocket.

Page 103 - "Vimes always preferred to walk by himself" is a possible reference to Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories - The Cat That Walked by Himself" - the cat insisting on being his own "man" and no one's servant.

Page 105 - Patrician Winder's tax system where he sells the rights to tax collection to the highest bidder ("tax farming") is a shot at the increasingly common practice among modern neo-conservative laissez faire capitalist governments of outsourcing government services from running prisons, to road maintenance to foreign aid, to name but a few.

Page 106 - Constable Wiglet and Constable Waddy are two more members of the old Watch and play no part in any other novels

Page 109 - Young Vimes says "But the lads were taking the pi- the michael, sir!" The polite expression for taking the 'piss' is of course 'taking the mickey' and 'Mickey' is a diminutive of 'Mick' and therefore 'Michael'. In Men at Arms , Pratchett plays with the same expression by making it more upper class "Extracting the urine."

Page 110 - Vimes conversation regarding Miss Battye explains the whole 'seamstress' as euphemism vs 'seamstress' as profession involving sewing with needle and thread.

Page 112 - Henry the Hamster has clearly not signed his real name and is about to find out that Vimes/Keel is not like the other coppers. HIs real name appears to be Henry Higgins which is a shout out to the character from the movie and musical My Fair Lady.

Page 113 - Captain Findthee Swing is the inventor of craniometrics and measures Vimes head with calipers - a reference to the practice of phrenology, the pseudoscience that tried to link personality and character to head shape which was developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall in 1796 and popularized in the Victorian era by Europeans wishing to justify their racism toward their subjects in their various colonies. Swing's calculations 'prove' that Vimes/Keel has 'the eye of an mass murderer'. Pratchett mentions craniology in his earlier novel Men at Arms as well.

Page 116 - "a tuppenny upright" is a quicky standing against a wall with a prostitute. When young Vimes asks Vimes/Keel what this is, the response is "It's a kind of jam doughnut," which, rather than simply being a brush off is really another sexual reference - oral sex with sadomasochism - something rude. And, in fact, a tuppenny upright is also a jam donut.

Page 118 - Tilden's inkwell placed in Vimes/Keel's locker is the kind of trick designed to throw guilt on someone the crowd wants to be disciplined or dismissed and is used in worksites around the world.

Page 120 - Mr. Salciforous's name is a play on Calciforous, which means to contain or produce calcium salts. The first part of Mr. Salciforous' name "Sal" means salt in Latin.

Page 121 - Vimes/Keel "pushes a metaphor" to the limit with his line about the role of Dr. Lawn in preventing pregnancy in the seamstresses/prostitutes by "Teaching them to use thimbles", an obvious reference to condoms - perhaps also a comment on the size of most customers' anatomy.

Page 121 - "Philosopher Sceptum, the founder of (Dr. Lawn's) profession." In fact, the founder of medicine is considered to be Hippocrates. With the word, 'sceptum', Pratchett is likely playing on 'septum' the bone in one's nose and 'skeptic' someone who has doubts or reservations about a subject.

Page 124 - Breakfast is "liver. Calves" See reference Page 92.

Page 128 - Vimes/Keels says to Dibbler, "And that's cutting your own throat, eh?" Dibbler doesn't get the meaning of the line initially but the reader knows that this is Dibbler's standard expression throughout the Discworld series so clearly Vimes/Keel has been the one to introduce it to him.

Page 131 - "Morphic Street, 9 o'clock tonight. Password: swordfish. Swordfish? Every password was swordfish!" This is a reference to the 1932 Marx Brothers' movie Horsefeathers. 'Swordfish' was the password for entering the speakeasy, and since then has become the archetypical password.

Page 133 - Most of the various street slang expressions and practices described in the conversation between Vimes/Keel and the young Nobby have been invented by Pratchett and have no basis in Realworld jargon. They do have the ring of Cockney rhyming slang or any inner city street talk. However, a dimbeer-damber is the head beggar or leader of the criminal gang and oil of angels is slang for a bribe The slang line, "fleague a jade" does give the reader a hint about what will be done later on in the novel with ginger, both in bottled form and in the raw; A 'jade' is a broken down, worthless horse. The practice described is said to be a way of making a nag frisky when selling it by shoving raw ginger up its anus and works just as well on oxen later in the book.

Page 134 - Nobby says, "I've got to be looking at a lordship every day". Most countries put their kings, queens, founding fathers, etc on their coinage and Ankh-Morpork is no exception.

Page 134 - Nobby grinned "artfully." Nobby is a street urchin like the Artful Dodger in Dicken's Oliver Twist. Pratchett also plays with the two uses of the word urchin - one the child of the street, the other the spiky sea creature.

Page 135 - Slumgullet for dinner sounds as unappetizing as its Roundworld counterparts, dishes like Slum gullion and Slumpie. Obviously is a stew of sorts.

Page 143 - "off to fight the Cheese Eaters of Quirm or 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. During WWII the Germans called Dutch people "kaaskop" cheese heads as an insult.

Page 147 - 148 - Lord Downy refers to one of the boys by the nickname 'dog botherer' which the reader soon learns is Vetinari, future ruler of Ankh-Morpork. Downy eventually becomes head of the Assassins Guild but not before Vetinari gets his revenge.

Page 148 -The line, "For a moment, the tiger burned brightly." is a reference to William Blake's poem The Tyger also used in The Last Continent). This line foreshadows, Vetineri painting orange and black stripes on Downey's face later in the book.

Page 156 - "The ginger beer trick" is a form of torture used by unscrupulous police forces in both Roundworld and Discworld. In simplified terms a carbonated beverage, with or without additives to make it even more gaseous, is shaken and inserted in one of the victim's bodily orifices where the instant release and expansion of dissolved gas creates excruciating pain but leaves no mark. Later Vimes/Keel tells Carcer that he will give his Unmentionable suspect "a cup of tea. Or a carbonated beverage of his choice" and then pretends to use this trick to get his Unmentionable suspect to talk.

Page 160 - Carcer says, "you be sure to look after yourself" to Vimes/Keel a clear threat to kill young Vimes and therefore eliminate the future Vimes from existence - a variation on the old time travel paradox of killing yourself or your grandparents in the past and thus making your existence impossible in the present.

Page 161 - "We who think we are about to die will laugh at anything" is a reference to the slogan of the gladiators "Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant"- "Hail Emperor, We who are about to die salute you" which Pratchett also uses in a bastardized form in The Last Hero. The original quote has been attributed to Suetonius in De Vita Caesarum ("The Life of the Caesars". It was reportedly used in the presence of the Emperor Claudius in AD 52 by the gladiators in the amphitheater and although widely quoted was not actually recorded anywhere else in Roman history.

page 160 - Lady Roberta Meserole, the mysterious lady, has many parallels in fiction most notably in the spy intrigue genre in the character of Milady de Winter in Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers". Meserole evidently is slang for a loud obnoxious drunken family group that teases and/or fight with each other.

Page 165 - The reference to "The Dolly Sisters Massacre" is reminiscent of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 in St. Peters Field in Manchester. Local magistrates were afraid that a rally organized by the Mancehster Patriotic Union at which well know radical Henry Hunt was to speak to protest for the repeal of the Corn Law and agitate for suffrage, would lead to rioting. They ordered Hunt's arrest and a sent the cavalry charging into the crowd of 60 -80,000 people, many of whom were women and children, killing 15 people and injured between 400 and 700 others. The Peterloo Massacre is considered to be a seminal moment in Britain at the time. The name was chosen as an ironic reference to the Battle of Waterloo which had just taken place 4 years before. Pratchett himself said: "It was Peterloo that I had in mind, .... But as a general rule, when things look bad there's always some dickhead who can make them worse."

Page 167 - Vimes/Keel says to the Unmentionable prisoner "Fancy a ginger beer?" See annotiation for page 156.

Page 180 - Vetinari says "I could tell you." "But then I would have to find someone to pay me to kill you." This is an assassin variation on the expression "It I tell you I will have to kill you" - the concept being that if more than one person knows a secret it will not be a secret for long. The expression has been attributed to everyone form Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, to Benjamin Franklin, to Oscar Wilde, to James Bond, to Top Gun. The original comes from the bible the Gospel of Thomas, which was written sometime between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE. In Saying 13, Jesus pulls Thomas aside from the rest of the Apostles and tells him three secret things. When Thomas returns to the group they ask him what Jesus said. Thomas replies, “If I tell you even one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me. Then fire will come from the rocks and devour you.” There is also an old Russian saying that goes "Two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead." In Pratchett's version, since assassins are paid to kill and don't freelance for personal reasons, Vetenari would have to have someone pay to do the killing; he couldn't just do it on his own.

Page 181 - The lady in Lilac has an elderly tom cat that farts, Vetinari feels that, " if you were going to fondle a cat while discussing matters of intrigue, then it should be a long-haired white one, It shouldn't be an elderly street tom with irregular bouts of flatulence." This is an obvious reference to Blofeld in the James Bond movies and his white Persian cat.

Page 183 - "He was the sort of little twerp that got a kick out of showing his dagger to women in bars." Clearly Pratchett is making a phallic play on words. Sometimes a sword is a penis.

Page 192 - Vimes/Keel says, "It's a comfy chair". This is likely a reference to the the Monty Pythons sketch regarding the Spanish Inquisition; this and other Monty Python sketches are uses regularly in Pratchett's novels.

Page 193 - "She opened another bottle. Properly, too, Vimes noticed....None of tha amateur business with rocketing corks and wasted bubbles.' Vimes/Keel is describing the proper way of easing the cork out of a champagne bottle in contrast to the way it is opened by championship winning sports teams, F1 race car drivers and the uninitiated.

Page 202 - "He could see the weapon in anything - a wall, a cloth, a piece of fruit." This line, the scene involving Vimes and Ned Coates sparring, and the following scene involving the watchmen training resonates with the Monty Python's sketch about being attacked by a man with a "pointed stick" and "fresh fruit" This is followed up with the line on page 205 - "Say I'm coming at you with a big big club....what do you do?" and is further reinforced when Pratchett uses the word sticks to refer to the men's truncheons later in the scene.

Page 209 - "And Spatchcock, Culweather and Moist and Leggy Gaskin and Horace Nancyball and...Curry, wasn't it?"...and Evans and Pounce". Leggy Gaskin is Herbert Gaskin, who ran too fast and caught up with the criminal he was chasing and whose funeral is mentioned at the beginning of Guards! Guards!: "It had been a hard day for the Watch. There had been the funeral of Herbert Gaskin, for one thing." His widow also gets a mention in Men at Arms.

Page 212 - Vimes/Keel tells Ned Coates not to put his trust in revolutions "They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes" This is a common theme in Pratchett regarding authority figures and Pratchett often works in the Who's famous line "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." in his works.

Page 214 - Mr. Soon Shine Sun's name plays on Asian names with the twist that when reversed it says the sun will shine soon, appropriate given the role of the History Monks.

Page 220 - Rust, the new commander has a long history with Vimes through the Discworld Canon. Here he is a young officer but Vimes knows him from his actions in the future and his philosophy: "Deduct your own casualties from those of the enemy, and if the answer is a positive number, it was a glorious victory". Rust's parallels in the Roundworld of WWI are legion encompassing both sides.

Page 224 - The line, "Dark sarcasm ought to be taught in schools." is an obvious reference to Pink Floyd's classic hit 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)':

We don't need no education

We don't need no thought control

No dark sarcasm in the classroom

Teachers, leave them kids alone

Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

Page 226 - "Children of the revolution" is a concept associated with the generation growing up after revolutionary activity. It refers to the first generation of persons born after a revolution. The children of the revolution are a blank slate on which the values of the revolution are imposed. Because the generation have no shared memory of the prior world they cannot compare the new system with the old and will uncritically accept the new system as the natural order. The phrase usually refers to political revolutions but also applies to revolutions in culture, science, and art. It was also the title of a #2 UK hit in 1972 for T-Rex as well as a song by Kirsty MacColl from her 1991 album Electric Landlady.

Page 226 - "There's plenty of time to sleep in the grave', said Vimes." Warren Zevon is credited with the original line 'I'll sleep when I'm dead".

Page 229 = Reg Shoe says "I regret that I have only one life to lay down for Whalebone Lane!" which is foreshadowing in that he returns to the world as a zombie. The line itself is based on the famous quote attributed to American revolutionary Nathan Hale before he was executed as a spy by the British army in 1776: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country".

Page 230 - "Who knew what evil lurked in the heart of men". This line is a variation on the opening line from the 1930's The Shadow. The reply is, "The Shadow Knows!"

Page 231 - Mr. Maroon says to Vetenari, "You know I couldn't tell you that, sir, even if I knew." This line resonates with Francis Urquhart in the BBC series House of Cards whose catchphrase which has entered common political commentary "You might very well think that; but I couldn't possibly comment"

Page 233 - The "notorious Hedge Argument Murder" is a reference to disputes between neighbours leading up to violence, which had become a growing problem in Britain around the time the novel was written. In 2003, The national support network for feuding neighbours, Hedgeline - the Campaign for the Control of Problem Hedges of All Species in Residential Areas of the UK - had 4000 paid-up members and estimated 100,000 Britons were locked in hedge wars with neighbours at any one time. At the time Pratchett was writing this novel there had been one hedge related murder and there have been subsequent ones.

Page 238 - Nobby tells Vimes/Keel that the people have "...thrown the lieutenant out the window" of the Dolly Sisters Watch house. Defenestration (from the French for window - fenetre) was a popular form of political protest in Prague in earlier centuries and seems to be popular in Russia today.

Page 243 - "The people are the sea in which the revolutionary swims" Reg Shoe says. This is just the kind of jargon pseudo-revolutionaries spout but Pratchett cleverly ties it in to the secret password 'swordfish' and also the double meaning of 'flounder' - the fish and to struggle mentally or show or feel great confusion.

Page 249 - The cross bow maker Burleigh and Stronginthearm is a double pun, obviously "burly" and "strong" but also a play on Vickers Armstrong the British company that made machine guns among other things in WWI. Pratchett uses this company name and pun throughout his novels.

Page 251 - "I'm just a clerk! A clerk!" The idea of ordinary people doing evil things because they are following orders is one of the central themes in the novel and in many of Pratchett's works. It was the main defense at the Nuremburg trials after WWII and was not accepted as a valid defense.

Page 252 - "I see a desk and its got a desk drawer" Pratchett and Vimes allude to the desk drawer torture in other parts of the novel. Obviously slamming the victim's fingers in a desk drawer would be very painful and result in broken fingers.

Page 253 - "'We didn't know!' Well not exactly, thought Vimes. We didn't ask." See annotation page 251. The defense of many Axis citizens as well as those in occupied nations was that they didn't know about the Jews, Romany, union leaders and homosexuals being sent to the gas chambers but the reality was closer to what Vimes says. They kept their heads down so that they weren't targetted themselves and adopted an 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude.

Page 255 - "Who knew what evil lurked in the hearts of men? A copper, that's who." is another of Pratchett's references to the opening line in the old Shadow radio series. The reply is, "The Shadow Knows!" See annotation page 230.

Page 258 - See annotation page 21, 33 and 94.

Page 259 - Swing says, "in times of nationalemergency we cannot be concerned with the so-called rights of -". The missing word is 'man'. This sentiment has been expressed regularly by politicians of all stripes down through the ages to justify extreme measures taken against its citizenry. The 911 terror attacks justified major changes in US policy toward detention without trial with people held in Guantanamo Bay prison for 20 years plus years. Other democracies enacted similar laws after 911 and/or other terrorist attacks in their own country. And totalitarian and dictatorial countries have always had these types of laws, organizations and secret police.

Page 260 - YES, said Death. I'M A BIT OF A TRICKY ONE" Swing cannot use his craniology on a skull.

Page 261 - "The guard, three feet away, lit a cigarette with no consideration for other people." Pratchett is using the kind of line the anti-smoking lobby and supporters use against the hold-outs who don't care about their second-hand smoke.

Page 261 - Dr. Lawn says to Vimes/Keel while stitching him up, "It's only a flesh wound," an obvious reference to Monty Python's Holy Grail, where the Black Knight says to King Arthur, "It's just a flesh wound".

Page 262 - Pratchett parodies the typical revolutionary rhetoric where the various factions sit around discussing minutae in the section where Reg Shoe wants to include Truth, Justice and Freedom plus "Free Love" in the "People's Declaration of the Glorious twenty-fourth of May" whereas Rosie Palm wants it to read, "reasonably priced love" for obvious reasons. Other lines including 'The people are the sea in which the revolutionary swims!' which is a quote from Chairman Mao reinforce this dogmatic approach by ideologues . Reg says that "all food must go to the common warehouse and be distributed by my officials according to -" in spite of the fact that there is no warehouse, no shortage of food to require rationing, and the food will spoil. Vimes comments to Reg Shoe that perhaps "the best way to build a bright new world is to peel some spuds in this one?" The practical vs the hollow ideology. Reg Shoe's ideology (just like Lenin, Mao, Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe and every other revolutionary comes up against the practical and fails miserably when dealing with both the big picture as in food production and distribution and the small - 'controlling the production of shoes in Comrade Supple's shoe shop. The Roundworld saw disasters in Ukraine and China with mass starvation of the people, Zimbabwe, the bread basket of Africa turned into a basket case and Cambodian leaders murdering and starving a quarter of the population. And there are countless other examples.

Page 268 - "And you definitely don't want to fight an enemy with no uniform." This is the reason guerilla warfare is so effective - the enemy looks like you and is impossible to identify. Later in the novel, Vimes demonstrates the solution to this problem when everyone on his side wears a sprig of lilac.

Page 268 - The military officers discussing their orders ask each other, "Did he right that down?' 'No,' Pity, neither did mine"'. A classic example of government officials creating plausible deniability in giving their directives by leaving the wiggle room so that they can blame their underlings.

Page 269 - Carcer says "You and whose army" The origin of this phrase is unclear but it comes from the mid 20th century perhaps associated with Britain or the USA from WWII.

Page 269 - Carcer in his conversation with the two senior officers demonstrates the characteristics of many leaders who rise from a lower position to take over because the person in higher authority doesn't have the skill or guts to stop them - Mao, Lenin, Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler to name just a few recent ones. They browbeat their superiors with threats until the superior gives in and becomes part of the problem.

Page 273 - "I'd be very worried if I saw a man singing the national anthem and waving the flag, sir. It's really a thing foreigners do." Pratchett may be getting a shot in at Americans here because this is not something British (or most commonwealth nations) do but it is a strong American trait.

Page 276 - Llamedos is Discworld's equivalent of Wales, hence the double "ll" in words and the reference to druids and standing stones.

Page 278 - all the little angels rise up "heads up" See annotations page 21, 33, 94 and 258.

Page 281 - Vimes says, "It's when they start to wonder why that the midden will hit the windmill. This is one of Pratchett's more clever and subtle puns since a windmill is a very large fan and a midden is a garbage dump. So the expression becomes "when the shit hits the fan"

Page 283 - Vime/Keel and young Sam's conversation regarding war and negotiations reflects Pratchett's view of the stupidity of it all - since all wars end with some type of negotiation it seems to them both that it would be more logical to negotiate from the start rather than fight.

Page 287 - Carcer asks Nobby if Vimes/Keel is 'charasmatic'. Nobby replies, "I haven't heard him cough much." Clearly Nobby is confusing 'charasmatic' meaning 'exercising a compelling charm which inspires devotion in others' with 'asthmatic' meaning suffering from a respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs.

Page 289 - "Show of strength, bold front, take no prisoners...that's what our orders are. Stupid, stupid orders", This is another example of Pratchett's contempt for the military mind exemplified by Lord Cardigan in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War and, in WWi, General Douglas Haig, Sir John French, (all British) Luigi Cadorna (Italian), Erich von Falkenhayn, Erich Ludendorff (German) and General John Pershing (USA) - the list is almost endless on both sides. He explores the theme more in Jingo with an older Lord Rust.

Page 289 - The name 'Big Mary' resonates with other weapons of war which have been named by their troops - Mons Megs, Big Bertha, Whistling Dick,

Page 290 - The use of ginger in the oxen's anus was foreshadowed earlier in the novel. See annotation on page 133.

Page 293 - Although Pratchett doesn't go into detail in describing the ginger trick it is clear that no one would want to shake hands until they had washed after performing it.

Page 294 - "they don't like the taste of cold steel, those....er....other people from Ankh-Morpork" This line reminds the reader of the futility of war, especially civil war where people are killing their neighbours.

Page 297 - Reg Shoe in his orders to take the carts of food to the non-existent warehouse for storage and spoilage instead of eating it is, once again, demonstrating the 'triumph' of revolutionary bureaucracy over common sense. See the annotation page 262.]

Page 298 - Reg responds to Vimes/Keel - "You mean we'll be in a famine situation?" to which Vimes/Keel replies, "If we aren't Reg, I'm sure you could organize one." This resonates with the Holodomor, Stalin's famine in Ukraine from 1932 to 33 and Mao's famine in China during the 'Great Leap Forward".

Page 299 - "That's what civilization meant. It meant the city." The word “civilization” relates to the Latin word “civitas” or “city.” This is why the most basic definition of the word “civilization” is “a society made up of cities".

Page 300 - Vimes/Keel pondering on the concept of extending the barricades until the only ones left outside are the evil politicians, the spongers and leeches on society - something we all have probably considered. Douglas Adams plays with the same idea in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when all the useless third of the population of Golgafrincham such as telephone sanitizers as sent off in the space ship and ultimately colonize Earth.

Page 301 - Hegglers is the sort of word that should mean an egg seller in Britain - eggs with that extra British "haitch" - and in fact in SE Worcestershire it did mean an itinerant seller of eggs.

Pge 302 - Lord Selachii takes his name for the order selachii, the major subclass of the Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes), the main species of which are the sharks - appropriate given his predatory nature, Pratchett plays with the fish motif when he says that Lord Selachii 'floundered'.

Page 303 - Lord Venturi takes his name from 'venturi' which is a short piece of narrow tube between wider sections for measuring flow rate or exerting suction - appropriate given that he is a 'toady'.

Page 305 - Sellachii thinks, "When respectable women called themselves Bobbi, the world was about to end, or ought to." Bobbi is the kind of name usually confined to celebrity actors, singers and the like. There are exceptions such as Roberta Frances "Bobbi" Fiedler - U.S. Congresswoman from California although some might argue that she is no exception to the rule given her anti-desegregation stance.

Page 306 - Pratchett description of the way Lady Mesorole controlling the floor in the move to overthrown Winder is an excellent description of any political convention - isolating the opponents, working on the weak links and ensuring that allies are not preaching to the converted.

Page 306 - Dr. Follett's name comes from the old French word for a fool or jester but the name was selected because Pratchett named his character after author Ken Follett. because Follett won a charity auction to have a character named after him.

Page 309 - The assassins dressed in black resonates with the men in black which Pratchett uses elsewhere in his novels. In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purportedly men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. The term is also frequently used to describe mysterious men working for unknown organizations, as well as various branches of government allegedly tasked with protecting secrets or performing other strange activities. The term is generic, used for any unusual, threatening, or strangely behaved individual whose appearance on the scene can be linked in some fashion with a UFO sighting. The "MIB" supposedly appeared throughout different moments in history. Stories about men in black inspired the semi-comic science-fiction Men in Black franchise, and an album by the Stranglers and, of course they are the central figures in the movies of the same name

Page 309 - "King of the Bean" is a reference to the midwinter festivals that elect a Lord of Misrule or Beggar King at Twelfth Night. A long succession of mock kings have ruled over winter holiday merrymaking in Europe. In ancient times they presided over feasts held in honor of the Roman festival of Saturnalia (see also Zagmuk). In the Middle Ages the boy bishop and the Lord of Misrule directed certain Christmas festivities (see also Feast of Fools). Twelfth Night celebrations, however, came under the special supervision of another mock ruler: the King of the Bean. In past centuries the English, French, Spanish, German, and Dutch celebrated Twelfth Night, or Epiphany Eve, with a feast. The Twelfth Night cake not only provided dessert, but also helped to facilitate an old custom (see also Christmas Cake). While preparing the cake the cook dropped a bean, coin or other small object into the batter. The man who found this object in his slice of cake was declared "King of the Bean." If a woman received the bean, she became queen and appointed a man as king. The king presided over the rest of the evening's activities. In some areas the king chose his own queen. In others, a pea was also added to the cake batter and the woman who found the pea in her serving of cake enacted the role of "queen." Everyone else became a member of the royal court. At some parties the courtiers carried out their role by announcing the mock ruler's every action. Cries of "the king drinks" or "the king coughs" cued others to follow suit. The mock rulers might also give silly commands that the court was expected to carry out. The French saying, il a trouvé la fève au gâteau, which means "he found the bean in the cake," comes from this Twelfth Night custom and means "he's had some good luck.". Pratchett uses the Beggar Queen in Men at Arms as well.

Page 314 - The image of Vetenari advancing on Winder, shooting the guards and throwing away his bows behind him has roots in many action movies from Kill Bill, to Mr and Mrs Smith to Laura Croft, Tomb Raider.

Page 314 - Appropriately Winder is eating cake when he dies, a clear reference to another ruler, Marie Antoinette's supposed words of "let them eat cake (pain is French for bread)". Like Winder she dies as a result of a revolution.

Page 314 - "terrors own more subtle knife had done its work" - The term 'subtle knife' is an interesting choice here which suggests this might be a shout out to the young adult fantasy novel by Philip Pulmann The Subtle Knife. Pratchett is a master at popular cultural allusions and has used Phillip Pulmann references in other novels.

Page 316 - "Somebody out there is doing the old 'hit them at their strongest point to show 'em we mean business' thinking. Another example of the 'brilliant military mind'. See annotation on Page 289.

Page 323 - The lines "Ave! Cuci novo, similis duci seneci" and "Ave Bossa nova, similis bossa seneca!" mean meet the new boss, same as the old boss - the line from the Who's song "We won't get fooled again."

Page 328 - "they rise up, arse up" followed by 'See the little angels rise up --- " .See annotation pages 21, 33, 94, 258 and 278.

Page 335 - The members of the Watch grab lilacs to put on their clothes in order to tell who is on their side in the upcoming confusing melee. This is a reference to the Welsh story of St. David, a monk who suggested that Welsh soldiers fighting against similarly-garbed Saxon invaders should festoon their helmets with leeks in order to tell friend from foe in the upcoming battle. This legend is very similar to the old war story that Dickins tells in this novel when he comes up with the idea to use the lilacs; in Dickins' story, the soldiers used carrots.

Page 335 - Carcer jokes that because of all the egg yoke, Vimes must have a yellow streak - hinting that he is a coward.

Page 336 - "They hated Keel with that gnawing, nerve-sapping hatred only the really mediocre can bring to bear". This is another of Pratchett's brilliant comments on the way the hoi polloi drags anyone down who tries to escape from poverty and improve themselves, instead of trying to better their own lot in life, all the while idolizing the ultra rich and accepting that they are entitled to their gross excessive wealth.

Page 339 - Reg Shoe yells from the barricade,"You can take our lives but you'll never take our freedom!" a line used by William Wallace in the 1995 movie Braveheart.

Page 340 - "In a few hours his (Reg Shoe) brain would be surprised" As we know from this and other novels, Reg is a zombie so clearly he will be resurrected.

Page 341 - When Ned Coates says to Vimes/Keel that there are bigger bastards than you, Vimes replies, "But I try harder" - a reference to Avis the car rental agency's slogan "We're number two. We try harder".

Page 345 - "It takes a thousand steps to get to the top of a mountain but one little hop'll take you all the way to the bottom" is a variation on the founder of Taoism, Lao Tsu's line, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step" as well as Neil Armstrong's words on the moon, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

Page 346 - "You're nicked old chum" is one of those stock British phrases. It means 'You're under arrest' Its variant from The Sweeney is "Get yer trousers on — you're nicked!".

Page 346 - "Pages tearing off a calendar and fluttering away" are a stock movie image to show the passing of time.

Page 349 - "I know a doctor" Obviously Vimes is thinking about Dr. Lawn and all his forceps and birthing tools.

Page 349 - " Quantum thingummies" Once again quantum is the explanation for the unexplainable.

Page 350 - Lawn says, "I'll just have to take the turkey out" to which Vimes replies, "Stuff the turkey" to which Lawn replies, "I already have." Another Pratchett play on words. Vimes is saying to hell with the turkey while Lawn is talking about turkey dressing.

Page 353 - "A grey hand was thrust out of the ground, clutching a shovel" Reg's emerging from the tomb echoes many TV and movie horror scenes. The 1976 horror movie Carrie is responsible for popularizing the image but it was a long standing image before that stemming back to the Grimm's Fairy Tale The Willful Child and later John Dickson Carr's The Three Coffins from 1935 and in the movie genre Abel Gance's Napoleon from 1927. Since then it has been use in Kill Bill II and countless episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All minus the shovel.

Page 354 - In a Pratchettesque twist it is the very alive Vimes that "frightened the life out of" the zombie rising from the dead.

Page 354 - "In the sunset glow, in the rising of the moon" Given that they are commemorating a revolution Pratchett has chosen an appropriate companion to the 'sunset glow'. "The Rising of the Moon" is an Irish ballad recounting a battle between the United Irishmen, led by Theobald Wolfe Tone against British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The ballad used the tune of another Irish ballad, "The Wearing of the Green", and was first published in John Keegan Casey's 1866 collection of poems and songs, A Wreath of Shamrocks. The lyrics were written by Casey (1846–70), the "Fenian Poet", who based the poem on the failed 1798 uprising in Granard, County Longford. The song has been covered by a wide variety of musicians, including The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, The High Kings, Tommy Makem, Shane MacGowan, Tia Blake, Barry McGuire, The Limeliters, and Peter, Paul and Mary.

Page 359 -Carcer, we'll take you to the Tanty, one gallows, no waiting, and you can dance the hemp fandango.' This is a common old British expression, In earlier days, hemp was used as the rope material of choice and the wiggling and waving legs of the person being hung looked like someone doing the fandango. The line is also used in The Last Hero. Vimes' speech here was evidently inspired by the kind of speech Judge Roy Bean used to make. Bean was a barkeeper turned hanging judge and self-proclaimed "Law West of the Pecos", who set up court in Texas, and was known for his colourful ('dubious' and 'arbitrary' would also be good words here...) judgements. He famously fined a corpse $40 for carrying a concealed weapon, for instance.

The way that the members of the watch wear lilacs in remembrance of their fallen comrades, and the depth of emotion that they feel about the act, is a reference to the British tradition of wearing red poppy flowers to commemorate the soldiers lost in World War I (later other wars as well). The poppies are especially worn on Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the end of the war.

Characters

The Past and Present (Major Characters)

• Carcer
• Sergeant Fred Colon
• Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler
• Dr. Lawn
• Lu-Tze (Sweeper)
• Corporal Nobby Nobbs
• Lady Sybil Ramkin
• Reg Shoe
• Mr Slant
• Havelock Vetinari
• Sir Samuel Vimes

The Past and the Present (Minor Characters)

• Sandra Battye
• Rosemary Palm
• Qu
• Willikins

The Past (Major Characters)

• Lance-Corporal Ned Coates
• Sergeant-At-Arms John Keel (Although only his corpse appears in the book, he plays an important part)
• Lady Roberta Meserole
• Captain Findthee Swing

The Past (Minor Characters)

• Abbot (mentioned)
• Agony Aunts
• Hon. John Bleedwell, assassin
• Captain Burns
• Sergeant Dai Dickins
• Dr Follett - Master of Assassins
• Forsythe, butler
• Franklin
• Sub-Lieutenant Harrap
• Herbert Gaskin
• Sergeant Winsborough Knock
• Gerald "Ferret" Leastways
• Ludo
• Marilyn, horse
• Maroon
• Horace Nancyball
• Corporal Quirke
• Ronald Rust
• Mr and Mrs Rutherford
• Lord Albert Selachii
• Lord Snapcase
• Cecil "Snouty" Clapman
• Soon Shine Sun
• Marco Soto
• Spymould
• Major Clive Mountjoy-Standfast
• Captain Tilden
• Trebilcock
• Gussie Two-Grins (mentioned)
• Lord Charles Venturi
• Constable Waddy
• Constable Billy Wiglet
• Lord Winder
• Lord Winstanleigh Greville-Pipe
• Captain Tom Wrangle

The Present (Major Characters)

• Sergeant Detritus
• Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom
• Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson
• Mustrum Ridcully
• Ponder Stibbons
• Corporal Buggy Swires

The Present (Minor Characters)

• Mrs. Content
• Drumknott
• Legitimate First
• Igor
• Librarian
• Corporal Ping
• Jocasta Wiggs

Locations

• Ankh-Morpork
  • Clay Lane
  • Library
  • Oblong Office
  • Tower of Art
  • Whalebone Lane
• Borogravia (Mentioned)
• Mouldavia (Mentioned)
• Ting Ling

Reception by Public

The book received critical acclaim. Robert Hanks of The Independent drew attention to a "slight softening of the funny bone" and a "hardening of the issues" in the later Discworld books, commenting on a lesser amount of jokes per page in Night Watch. He criticised the book's slow start, but called the book intriguing for its "Chestertonian common-sense morality" and drew comparison to the book's events to the Bloody Sunday. The New York Times's Therese Littleton praised the book as "transcend[ing] standard genre fare with its sheer schoolboy humour and characters who reject their own stereotypes".

Night Watch won the 2003 Prometheus Award, and came runner-up in the Locus Poll for best fantasy novel. On the suggestion of the book having "darker" themes, Pratchett responded:

A dark book, a truly dark book, is one where there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Where things start off going bad and carry on getting badder before they get worse and then it's all over. I am kind of puzzled by the suggestion that it is dark. Things end up, shall we say, at least no worse than they were when they started... and that seems far from dark to me. The fact that it deals with some rather grim things is, I think, a different matter

Translations

• Night Watch (2002) by Terry Pratchett also appeared as:
  • Translation: Die Nachtwächter [German] (2003)
  • Translation: De nachtwacht [Dutch] (2004)
  • Translation: Ronde de nuit [French] (2006)
  • Translation: Éjjeli őrjárat^? [Hungarian] (2015)
  • Translation: Нощна стража (Bulgarian)
  • Translation: Noční hlídka (Czech)
  • Translation: Öövahtkond (Estonian)
  • Translation: Straż nocna (Polish)
  • Translation: Ronda de Noche (Spanish)

External links

• Annotations for Night Watch
• Quotes from Night Watch

! colspan="3" | Reading order guide

! colspan="3" | Awards