The Carpet People:

Background:
This was Terry's first ever novel, he wrote it when he was 17. It was first published in 1971. Later, in the late 1980s, when the success of the Discworld books started to take off, Corgi proposed reprinting the original novel. Terry, at this point, aged 43, objected... and attempted to "fix" some of the things that he considered to be "glaring mistakes" in the original novel.

The result is the reprinted version of The Carpet People... (The original version is highly prized by collectors, and has a high monetary value).

On a personal level, I have a great debt to repay Mr Pratchett for his revamped version of this book. I had a friend who was dying with stomach cancer back in 1994, who was very depressed.

I loaned him my copy of "The Carpet People", and he absolutely loved it! (He even went to the extreme of phoning me late at night to point out the historical parallels that he had seen between some of the people of the Carpet, and the Roman Empire, (which, I had, of course, completely missed... thanks John, and thank you too Terry!)).

The Blurb: (1992 paperback edition)

In the beginning, there was nothing but endless flatness. Then came the Carpet...

That's the old story everyone knows and loves (even if they don't really believe it). But now the Carpet is home to many different tribes and peoples and there's a new story in the making. The story of Fray, sweeping a trail of destruction across the Carpet. The story of power hungry mouls -- and of two Mungrung brothers, who set out on an adventure to end all adventures when their village is flattened.

It's a story that will come to a terrible end -- if someone doesn't do something about it. If everyone doesn't do something about it...

A hilarious (sic) fantasy co-written by Terry Pratchett aged seventeen, and master storyteller, Terry Pratchett, aged forty-three.