''No one mixes the fantastical and mundane to better comic effect or offers sharper insights into the absurdities of modern endeavour'' Daily MailThe Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . . Fairy godmothers develop a very deep understanding about human nature, which makes the good ones kind and the bad ones powerful. Inheriting a fairy godmother role seemed an easy job . . . After all, how difficult could it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn''t marry a prince? Quite hard, actually, even for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. That''s the problem with real life – it tends to get in the way of a good story, and a good story is hard to resist. Servant girls have to marry the prince, whether they want to or not. You can''t fight a Happy Ending, especially when it comes with glass slippers and a rival Fairy Godmother who has made Destiny an offer it can''t refuse.____________________The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Witches Abroad is the third book in the Witches series.