The British and US covers of the final Discworld novel from the late Sir Terry Pratchett have been revealed, showing the teenage witch Tiffany Aching surrounded by fairy clan the Nac Mac Feegles – and a motif of bees.

The Shepherd’s Crown was completed by Pratchett in the summer of 2014, and will be published by Penguin Random House on 27 August. It is published in the US on 1 September.

The book is the final Discworld novel from the author who died in March, and the fifth to feature Tiffany, after The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight.

The British and US jackets were unveiled on Pratchett’s Twitter feed, which had last been used to break the news of his death in March. “A man is not dead while his name is still spoken. Speak his name,” tweeted @terryandrob from the account in the name of Pratchett and his assistant, Rob Wilkins.

Few details have been disclosed about the forthcoming novel. The British jacket shows Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegles, the six-inch fairies with red hair and blue skin who speak a Scots dialect (“Ye ken, we’ve been robbin’ and running aroound on all kinds o’ worlds for a lang time, and I’ll tell ye this: the universe is a lot more comp-li-cated than it looks from the ooutside,” one says in The Wee Free Men). It also depicts a white cat, presumably You, the kitten given by Tiffany to Granny Weatherwax. Advertising material for the novel from Waterstones shows it surrounded by bees – a theme repeated on the US cover from HarperCollins.

Pratchett’s Facebook page has been posting a series of quotes from the Tiffany Aching books, under the line “There will be a reckoning”, and adorned, again, with the motif of bees.

“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world,” was taken from A Hat Full of Sky, as was “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Terry Pratchett in 2001. Photograph: Tom Pilston/The Independent/Rex

The official Facebook page, run by Pratchett’s publishers, also quoted a section from I Shall Wear Midnight: “‘I make it my business. I’m a witch. It’s what we do. When it’s nobody else’s business, it’s my business,’ said Tiffany.”



Fans welcomed the images of the new jacket, but expressed their sadness at the fact that it will be the last Discworld novel from Pratchett. “I’m really not looking forward to this. I’ll read the last word and know that I’ll never again have the pleasure of reading a Pratchett book for the first time. No more anticipation. No more new joys. RIP Sir,” wrote one. “I just wish it didn’t say “Final Discworld Novel’,” wrote another. “I’m going to read it but not finish reading the last page, that way I will always have an unfinished Pratchett book. God bless you Sir Terry and thank you,” said another.

The Long Utopia, the fourth book in the science fiction series Pratchett co-wrote with Stephen Baxter, will be published on 18 June, with a fifth and final novel in the series still to come.