Polly Perks needs to find her brother, he had enlisted in the army and hasn’t been heard from for a while. The best thing for her to do is to join the army but it’s an offence for women to wear trousers or be in the army so she cuts off her hair and pretends to be a boy. I won’t tell you if Polly finds her brother, but she finds herself and a whole lot more during her sojourn in the army.
I was reading this as part of the Terry Pratchett 2010 Reading Challenge. I couldn’t help remembering The Second Australian Discworld Convention Nullus Anxietas 2. Some of our members got together and created costumes so they could become The Monstrous Regiment. They were talking about it on the forum and my two daughters were part of it so I knew all about it. Two weeks prior to the actual convention we were still scratching around for an opening ceremony and I had an idea. Some people cringe when I have an idea but this one seemed to strike a chord (probably an A flat) and I was given the go ahead. I wrote a rough script and the lady who was doing Sergeant Jackrum just happened to be on our committee and sort of in charge of the Regiment so she was charged with asking her team and keeping it all hush hush. They all agreed and the idea took hold. We actually had a man playing Lieutenant Blouse and he’s pretty good with a script so he took my rough script and fleshed it out a bit. Fast forward to the actual opening night and they march in on cue and take a turn around the tables. Unfortunately, my planning didn’t include a video camera to capture it for posterity which is incredibly sad as it was just so good. They also took out the prize for their costumes on the Saturday night.
I do actually have a few words to say about this book. It does have a message about religion and how sometimes they can be really strict with no reasoning behind the strictness. There is also a message about women being just as capable as men and sometimes needing to be twice as good in order to prove themselves. I think the biggest message is about war and how silly it really is. I really enjoyed this book, certainly I got more enjoyment out of it this time round. Having seen the costumes I was more able to visualise them in the forest and see how silly they were.
Love the Sir Terry Pratchett discworld books and your convention sounded a barrel of fun.
It was, I guarantee it was. There’s a new one coming up next year in Sydney. You can get more details on their website. We do get attendees from the UK and the US.