posted on 23 May 2022

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

What do you get when you bring together two of the most inventive and irreverent writers of cult fantasy novels? Well, the 1990 novel, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman might well be what you’d expect to burst out from this collaboration.

For those of you who have read any of Pratchett’s Discworld series or Gaiman’s American Gods, you’ll know pretty much what to expect. Settle down for plenty of wry jokes and tongue-in-cheek commentary covering all aspects of the world of ‘alternative’ philosophies, witches, warlocks, demons, angels and proponents of the End Times. The dialogue sparkles for a while before the various knowing nods and winks to its audience begin to pall and the whole confection ultimately folds in on itself. Not that it matters really – this is a comic novel that pretty much delivers a gag on every page and that will be enough for plenty of readers to love the helter-skelter ride it provides.

As the novel opens we discover that the Apocalypse is upon us and the Anti-Christ in the person of a new-born baby named Adam living in the English Home Counties will herald the ultimate battle between good and evil – and whoever wins it will mean the end of humanity as we have come to know it. This, it turns out, happens to be pretty bad news for Aziraphale, an angel and Crowley, a demon who have been the representatives of Heaven and Hell on Earth since its creation. In that time they have come to rather like each other and the pleasures humanity can offer and they don’t fancy having their good thing brought to a crashing halt. So between them they decide that they’ve got to try and sabotage the plans for this final showdown.

This central conceit is embroidered by a number of sub-plots that revolve around all manner of raggle-taggle but charmingly whimsical events and eccentric groups. I gather that Good Omens actually began life as a parody of a Richmal Compton William story – William the Antichrist – and in homage to that, Adam the Antichrist of Good Omens has his own gang of more-or-less willing helpers who engage in ill-informed and lurid stories about what’s going on in the neighbourhood and Adam’s lack of self-awareness of his actual identity certainly adds to the humour.

Then there’s would-be witch, Anathema Device who has the only ever accurate book of prophesy ( that compiled by Alice Nutter of the book’s subtitle), loses it and then has to search for her lost property in the teeth of the attentions of a motley band of witch-finders.

And the there’s the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse…………..

Justine Jordan reviewing the book in 2015 for The Guardian is a little more enthusiastic about it than I am but I think this assessment of the book is largely fair:

‘ the book has lasted surprisingly well. Pratchett and Gaiman’s obsession with tech meant they were ahead of the curve when it came to the “slim computers” that demon Crowley likes so much. Some things haven’t changed: “All that lather comes up from the centre of the Earth, where it’s all hot,” says a member of Adam’s gang. “I saw a programme. It had David Attenborough, so it’s true.” And the real end of the world that Adam foresees is closer and scarier than ever: “Everyone’s goin’ around usin’ up all the whales and coal and oil and ozone and rainforests and that, and there’ll be none left for us. We should be goin’ to Mars and stuff, instead of sittin’ around in the dark and wet with the air spillin’ away.” ‘

If you’re a fan of Pratchett or Gaiman you’ll love this and you will probably be upset that there was never another collaboration and now, of course, there never can be. For those of you who are curious to read this, there are plenty of cheap paperbacks available – especially following the recent television adaptation – but first edition hardbacks are, predictably, pricey.

 

 

Terry Potter

May 2022