The final song on the album is called We Shall Wear Midnight. Understanding the significance of the songs and the references to characters and events is no doubt a huge boost. She is nine years old in The Wee Free Men, and reaches her late teens at the end of The Shepherd’s Crown.Īlthough the album can definitely be enjoyed without having read the novels, those that have will form an instant association with the songs. The books chronicles her struggles to grow into her job as a witch, as well as her growing up in general. Tiffany Aching is a young witch-in-training. I just said to him, you know, have you ever considered a collaboration with Steeleye? And he said, ‘I thought you’d never ask!’ Because he was a great Steeleye fan, you know! He then went and got the books related to a young developing witch called Tiffany Aching, and that’s how the project started.”

Violinist and vocalist Peter Knight was interviewed by Mark Linsenmayer on the Nakedly Examined Music podcast, and recalled how the collaboration came together: “The Wintersmith project sort of kicked off, really, with my wife saying ‘When you play at Terry Pratchett’s 60 th birthday party, why don’t you ask him if he would be interested in some sort of collaboration?’ So, we played at Terry’s birthday party, and we went for a walk down by the river on Terry Pratchett’s land. He can be heard on The Good Witch, and it will bring a smile to the face of many Pratchett fans to hear him talk of the loneliness and hard work involved in being a witch. A lot of the lyrics are based on Pratchett’s works (who has a writing credit on every song), and the author also wrote an introduction in the album booklet as well as contributing spoken word parts. It is their 22 nd studio album, and is a concept album based on Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching novels done in collaboration between the band and Pratchett. Wintersmith is also the title of a 2013 album by Terry Pratchett’s favourite musical group, Steeleye Span.

Pratchett wrote five books about Tiffany Aching: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010), and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015). These books are set in the well-known Discworld universe, with Wintersmith being the 35 th in the series. Wintersmith is the title of the third Tiffany Aching novel by Terry Pratchett, published on 21 September 2006.

I shall wear midnight