The 37th Discworld novel is set against a backdrop of the culture of football.

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork — not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go gloing when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they’re in the mood for trying everything else.

The prospect of a Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt, who no one knows much about. As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed forever.

Because the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.

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Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He is the acclaimed creator of the Discworld series, the first title in which, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, and the latest is Making Money. His books have been translated into 37 languages. Terry Pratchett was knighted for services to literature in 2009.

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