The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner and Other Stories

Lots of great stuff here for the devoted pTerry Fan.Mr Swimble and his bad day and the mysterious vacuum cleaner is the title story, and it is funny, phantasmagorical and lighthearted. We also have a great little pirate tale,Fourteen funny (and not so funny) gems from the talented pen of Sir Terry Pratchett.If you loved Dragons at Crumbling Castle, the stories from Terry's early days at the Bucks Free Press, you'll love this. Some are a little dated of course. In a supposedly "modern' story many of today's everyday conveniences are no where to be seen... which might be a Good Thing....Aimed mostly at the younger audience, full of whimsy and sillyness. Sometimes with a point.Illustrated throughout by the fabulous Mark Beech, the illustrations work very well with this collection. There's also a bit of silliness with thetypeface at times.Several are set in the Wild Welsh town of Llandanffwnfafegettupagogo (and yes, i had to cut and paste that one, and i am still not sure I got it right!)."Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor" later became Truckers, and there are other hints of pTerry's mad genius to come sprinkled throughout.

If you are looking for a light, funny read, this is your book. It was like watching cartoons or Monty Python. Very bad for a bedtime book for me. I found it hard to stop reading, well, actually, listening to this one. 3:00 came too quickly. So, sorry if this sounds more disjointed than my usual reviews.Oh, I listened to the Audible using the whispersynch. Julian Rhind-Tutt (Narrator) is facinating! His voice changes with every character. He tells the story with so much gusto that sometimes I think I missed story for enthusiastic energy. Even still, at the end of each story I had that sigh of fulfillment.The stories themselves are sadly, mostly, male. In fact, the very first one ended with the main character marrying the witch with us hardly knowing a thing about the witch except that she was a witch. I wanted more about her and that parrot. Please forget that you just read the last two sentences if they seem spoilers. After all, the title of the book is The Witch's Vacuum. Seems like there should be a lot more witch and vacuums than men in the form of police or gnomes. But hey, Mr. Pratchett wrote this when he was a teen and the adage says 'write what you know'. Sadly, Mr. Pratchett knew nothing about the other half of society then. Later he did write some fun books that did have fems but mostly they are witches. Is it any wonder how the world is now if this is all anyone has read most of their lives?Still, I have loved Terry Pratchett's writing, so creative! Magick exists, but sadly without fems. Even colors we have never heard of exists. Don't get me started! YET, I love his writing. Fun, fun stories!So take it with a grain of salt that in male authors' worlds, fems hardly exist. We will try to change that with our own writings and making sure they see us as the other humans. After all the whole language system leaves us behind. Even human. We could be called hu.But it is for this teeny-tiny problem that I am giving the book four stars instead of five. If you can get the audio version you are in for the best story telling around--save for girls, fe=iron.

I have to admit that I was disappointed by most of these stories. I am huge fan of Pratchett's Discworld novels, so I was expecting a bit more than half-baked, poorly developed stories and characters. These stories feel like drafts. There are one or two really good short stories, but I'd consider the majority not worth reading.

The short stories are great and remind me of some of L Frank Baum's. Definitely recommended.However there is a problem with the formating. I suspect that some of the words we're supposed to be in italic but instead the words became much much larger than the normal size text. It could also use a bigger indent for paragraphs. It currently has a one space indent.I recommend getting the book and also sending a note to the publisher.

A quirky short story collection from the late Sir Terry Pratchett written between 1966-1973featuring gnomes, wizards, quests, odd things, the unknown Welsh Wild West, and everything inbetween. Must read.

Even as a teen, Pratchett''s quirky sense of humor came through. These are all fun to read and I'm sure the grandchildren will enjoy them as well. I'm less enthusiastic about the way they played around with the fonts to emphasize certain words--rather like attaching a laugh track as if the reader couldn't figure out what's important.

This is a really cool set of short stories! I don’t know if these are all completely accurate as to his original works, but they are very creative and cute constructs. Very enjoyable.

While these stories are no quite on par with the authors Discworld books it was nevertheless a very enjoyable read. There were numerous instances where I had a good laugh and once at least that I shed a few tears. Overall a very good time was delivered and more than worth the price of admission to what was happening in Mr. Pratchett's head way back when he was just a young man!

Brilliantly written children (of any age)'s stories printed with a lot of care and attention to the type setting; many words have been printed to show what they mean at points of excitement or drama, particularly onomatopoeic ones. The pictures are also great and my little one loved them (even if my reading of the story was not so interesting! :) I should also mention the font is quite large which makes things much easier on the eyes, especially if you aren't being allowed to hold the book while reading it!Definite recommendation.

I bought this for my daughter who is 6 and starting to really enjoy reading. She was a bit daunted by the fact that there was so much text (i.e. there were very few pictures) but after starting the first story all I could hear was her screeching like the parrot in it and laughing.The previous reviews are also correct - the typeface is such that it is a really good book for introducing a slightly more advanced way to read without scaring or confusing.

I have renamed him! ...the Witches is a superb set of stories, and the characters themselves are already legendary, and the tales that these books portray are amongst the finest ever written. City Watch are another set of characters you should track down too, should you ever get the chance

My niece adores the short stories and charming little illustrations. Great way to get someone into reading without it feeling overwhelming or intimidating because the stories are bitesize and magical writing from Pratchett as always!

A nice book of short stories from a dearly missed gentleman. Terry was one of the greatest writers I’ve read. blessed be your memory Sir.