Nation: The Play [Paperback]

Thought-provoking as well as fun, this is Pratchett at his most philosophical, with characters and situations sprung from ideas and games with language. And it celebrates the joy of the moment. The Times Nation has profound, subtle and original things to say about the interplay between tradition and knowledge, faith and questioning...It's funny, exciting, lighthearted and, like all the best comedy, very serious. Guardian Terry Pratchett is an indisputable one-off...Nothing he writes is ever predictable - except that it will always be gloriously readable. Independent Pratchett's immensely entertaining new young adult novel, manages to be both thought-provoking and sweet... It's a wonderful story, by turns harrowing and triumphant. New York Times

Following the National Theatre's success with plays based on novels by well-loved children's writers like Philip Pulman ("His Dark Materials"), Jamila Gavin ("Coram Boy") and Michael Morpurgo ("War Horse"), the National now stages Mark Ravenhill's exhilarating adaptation of Terry Pratchett's witty and challenging adventure story in a major Christmas production for 2009. Its a parallel world, 1860. Two teenagers thrown together by a tsunami that has destroyed Mau's village and left Daphne shipwrecked on his South Pacific island, thousands of miles from home. One wears next to nothing, the other a long white dress; neither speaks the other's language; somehow they must learn to survive. As starving refugees gather, Daphne delivers a baby, milks a pig, brews beer and does battle with a mutineer. Mau fights cannibal Raiders, discovers the world is round and questions the reality of his tribe's fiercely patriarchal gods. Together they come of age, overseen by a foul-mouthed parrot, as they discard old doctrine to forge a new Nation.

Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the Discworld series, started in 1983 with The Colour of Magic, and which has now reached 37 novels with Unseen Academicals. Worldwide sales of his books are 60 million, and they have been translated into 37 languages. Terry Pratchett was knighted for services to literature in 2009. Visit www.terrypratchett.co.uk for further news and information. Mark Ravenhill is an Associate at the National Theatre, and author of many plays including the controversial Shopping and F***ing and Mother Clap's Molly House.