Terry Pratchett news

From the Discworld Monthly email newsletter:

There is a new petition up on the UK Government's official Number 10 website to suggest that Terry is awarded a knighthood for his service to literature. You need to be a UK resident to be able to sign the petition and to have a valid email address as they will email you back to confirm your signature. On Thursday 29 March at 5.15 pm there was a grand total of 334 signatures, so a bit of work is needed.

If you're a UK resident or hold UK citizenship and work overseas (eg. in the Armed Forces), please pop over to the Petition website and vote.

If ever anyone deserved a Knighthood, it's "Lord Terry of Pratchett" (as he's affectionately known to me and my family), so spread the word far and wide, please !

Also in the newsletter are details of the 2008 UK Discworld Convention:

On behalf of the committee for the 2008 Discworld convention, I am very happy to announce that we have confirmed our venue and date for the 2008 convention. The 2008 Discworld Convention will take place from the 22nd to the 25th of August at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel.

Full details of membership and hotel costs will be announced when we launch the revamped website at Easter, but we are planning an introductory membership fee of 50 GBP (a 5 GBP increase on the 2006 starting price).

The previous three conventions were hosted at the Hinckley Island Hotel and many of the attendees at those events have very happy memories of those events and of the hotel. For many members (and committee staff), the Hinckley Hotel became almost synonymous with the Discworld convention. However, while the 2006 convention was a
great success, the hotel itself did not provide an entirely perfect experience, although the friendly and helpful attitude of many of the staff was, once again, an important contributor to an enjoyable weekend.

The committee thought very hard before choosing a new venue for the convention, but we are very excited by the possibilities of the new hotel. In particular, we are looking forward to making the most of a main event room that can seat the entire membership (so no more people missing out on the opening ceremony or Terry's interview).

Most of all, though, we are excited about seeing you there. We want to see our old friends and regular attendees, who have done so much to create the happy memories of previous Discworld events that motivate us to work towards the next convention. We want to see the new members and the surprises and new ideas they will bring. And
Terry will be turning up at some point, don't forget.

Much more information will be available when we re-launch the website. Until then, hello again and I'm looking forward to seeing you in Birmingham.

Can't wait!

Bruce Richardson, Chairman, Discworld Convention 2008

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Now that the venue details are finalised and the announcement has been made we would also like to welcome you to some new discussion groups for fans interested in the 2008 Convention:

You can subscribe to the new mail list here. There is also a LiveJournal community to join here

It sounds like fun !