The Witches Series Reading Order: Granny Weatherwax's Complete Story Arc
The complete Discworld Witches reading order: all 11 Granny Weatherwax books, from Equal Rites to The Shepherd's Crown, plus where to start and what to skip.
The Witches Series Reading Order: Granny Weatherwax's Complete Story Arc
Granny Weatherwax doesn't do magic if she can help it. She doesn't need to.
She's a witch who wins most of her fights by being more stubborn than the universe, and she's the reason a lot of readers stop thinking of Discworld as "that funny fantasy series" and start thinking of it as something more. Elves, vampires, a fairy godmother with a god complex, an opera house haunted by a murderer: none of them are ready for an old woman in a black hat who simply refuses to lose.
So which order do you read the Witches books in? Where does Tiffany Aching fit? And do you really have to start with Equal Rites? Here's the honest answer to all three, plus a book-by-book guide to one of the best character arcs Terry Pratchett ever wrote.
The Witches Books at a Glance
The Witches series is really two runs of books that share a cast. The first six follow the witches of Lancre, a tiny mountain kingdom in the Ramtops. The last five follow Tiffany Aching, a young witch from the Chalk, with Granny as her formidable mentor.
| Order | Title | Year | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Equal Rites | 1987 | A girl inherits a wizard's staff |
| 2 | Wyrd Sisters | 1988 | Macbeth, a murdered king, and a coven |
| 3 | Witches Abroad | 1991 | Fairy tales as a weapon |
| 4 | Lords and Ladies | 1992 | The elves come back |
| 5 | Maskerade | 1995 | Murder at the Opera House |
| 6 | Carpe Jugulum | 1998 | Modern vampires move into Lancre |
| 7 | The Wee Free Men | 2003 | Tiffany vs the Queen of Fairyland |
| 8 | A Hat Full of Sky | 2004 | Tiffany's apprenticeship |
| 9 | Wintersmith | 2006 | Winter itself falls for Tiffany |
| 10 | I Shall Wear Midnight | 2010 | A witch the world turns against |
| 11 | The Shepherd's Crown | 2015 | The end of an era |
Eleven books across nearly thirty years. That's the longest-running character thread in the whole of Discworld, longer even than Sam Vimes and the Watch.
Should You Read the Witches Books in Order?
Mostly, yes, but the rules are looser than for the Watch.
Each of the Lancre books is a self-contained story. You can pick up Lords and Ladies cold and follow it fine. What you lose is the slow build of the relationships: how the coven forms, how Magrat Garlick grows from a nervous young witch into a queen, and how Granny's iron self-control starts to show its cracks.
The Tiffany books are a different matter. They follow one girl growing up from nine to her late teens, and they really do need to be read in order.
"The Lancre books forgive you for skipping around. The Tiffany books don't."
There's one honest exception to "start at the beginning", and we'll get to it right now.
The Lancre Witches: Book-by-Book Guide
1. Equal Rites (1987)
Where it starts: A dying wizard passes his staff to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately, the baby is a girl. Eskarina Smith grows up with wizard magic she isn't supposed to have, and the local witch, Granny Weatherwax, ends up marching her to Unseen University, where women are not allowed.
Why it matters: It's Granny's debut, and a good-natured swipe at the gender rules of fantasy magic. But it's early Pratchett, and it shows. Granny is sharper and stranger here than she later becomes, and Nanny Ogg and Magrat haven't appeared yet.
Skip it if: You want the "real" Witches series. Plenty of fans start with Wyrd Sisters and come back to Equal Rites later as a prequel. You won't miss anything that later books rely on.
2. Wyrd Sisters (1988)
Where we're at: The coven is born. Granny, Nanny Ogg and young Magrat find themselves guardians of a baby heir after the King of Lancre is murdered by Duke Felmet and his ambitious wife. If that sounds a bit like Macbeth, that's the joke, along with a good deal of Hamlet and some pointed thoughts about the power of theatre to rewrite history.
Why it matters: This is where the Witches series finds its voice. The crone, the mother and the maiden, except the crone won't admit to being one, the mother has fifteen children and a cat called Greebo, and the maiden keeps buying occult jewellery.
Start here if: You want the classic entry point. Most fans recommend this one first.
3. Witches Abroad (1991)
Where we're at: The three witches travel across the Disc to the city of Genua to stop a girl from marrying a prince. That sounds backwards, until you meet the villain: Lilith, a fairy godmother who forces real people into the shapes of fairy tales, whether they fit or not.
Why it matters: It's the funniest of the Lancre books, with Nanny Ogg on holiday as a comic force of nature. Underneath, it's a sharp book about stories as traps, and it reveals a piece of Granny's family history that explains a lot about why she's so careful with her power.
Don't miss: What happens to Greebo the cat when he's turned into a man. Nanny is very proud.
4. Lords and Ladies (1992)
Where we're at: Magrat is about to marry King Verence, a crowd of teenage girls are dabbling in witchcraft, and the walls between worlds are thinning. The elves want back in. And on the Disc, elves are not the wise, beautiful folk of Tolkien. They're cruel, glamorous predators.
This is also the book that introduces Agnes Nitt, one of the teenage would-be witches.
Why it matters: Lords and Ladies riffs on A Midsummer Night's Dream and turns the darker parts of folklore loose. It's where Granny's past catches up with her, and where Magrat finally discovers her own strength. If you want the deeper story of that, read our piece on Magrat and the armour of Queen Ynci. For why Granny hates the romance of the elves so much, see Elves Are Wonderful.
Many fans' favourite. It's easy to see why.
5. Maskerade (1995)
Where we're at: With Magrat married and out of the coven, Granny and Nanny need a third witch, and they've picked Agnes. Agnes has other ideas: she's run away to sing at the Ankh-Morpork Opera House. Unluckily for her, there's a masked figure killing people there.
Why it matters: This is Pratchett's take on The Phantom of the Opera, and it's a strange and fun one. Agnes is a great addition, and her clash with her own sense of who she "ought" to be is the heart of the book. We've written about that in Reality vs. Seeming.
Be aware: It's the most comic and least weighty of the Lancre books. Some readers find it the weakest of the six; others love it for Nanny Ogg's cookbook subplot alone.
6. Carpe Jugulum (1998)
Where we're at: King Verence invites a family of vampires to his daughter's naming ceremony. They're modern vampires. They've trained themselves to tolerate garlic and holy symbols, and they mean to take Lancre as their own. Granny, feeling her age and apparently left off the guest list, isn't there to stop them.
The new face is Mightily Oats, a young priest whose faith is full of doubt, who ends up travelling with Granny through the worst night of her life.
"This is the book where Granny's goodness stops looking easy and starts looking like hard work."
Why it matters: Carpe Jugulum is the darkest of the Lancre books, and the one where Pratchett states Granny's whole moral philosophy outright. Talking to Oats, she says that "sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself." The full argument is worth its own article, and we've written it: Granny Weatherwax's moral philosophy.
Don't miss: How Granny deals with the vampires. It's covered in Granny's greatest gambit, but read the book first.
The Tiffany Aching Books: Granny's Last Act
After Carpe Jugulum, the Lancre series stopped. Granny's story didn't. She moved into a new set of books, aimed at younger readers, and became the mentor to the next great witch.
Don't let the "young adult" label put you off. The Tiffany books are some of the best Discworld novels written for any age, and they're essential if you care about how Granny's story ends.
7. The Wee Free Men (2003)
Where we're at: Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching lives on the Chalk, sheep country, and her little brother has been stolen by the Queen of Fairyland. Armed with a frying pan and backed by the Nac Mac Feegle, a clan of tiny, blue, drunk, fight-loving pictsies, she goes to get him back.
Why it matters: Tiffany's real teacher in this book is the memory of her late grandmother, Granny Aching, a shepherd who never called herself a witch. Her creed is the backbone of the whole series: "Them as can do, has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices." We've explored that in The Hag O' the Hills.
8. A Hat Full of Sky (2004)
Tiffany leaves home to train with a working witch, and something ancient and bodiless starts to take her over. Granny Weatherwax takes a direct hand here, and their scenes together, two stubborn women who recognise each other, are the best in the book.
9. Wintersmith (2006)
Tiffany joins a dance she shouldn't, and the spirit of winter falls in love with her. It's the lightest of the Tiffany books, and a lovely one, with Nanny Ogg and Granny both on hand.
10. I Shall Wear Midnight (2010)
Now a working witch on the Chalk, Tiffany has to deal with a world that suddenly hates witches, and with an old enemy that feeds on that hatred. It's the most grown-up Tiffany book, dealing with abuse and violence head-on.
11. The Shepherd's Crown (2015)
Pratchett's final Discworld novel, published after his death in 2015. Without spoiling too much: it's the book where Granny Weatherwax's story ends, and where Tiffany has to step into the space she leaves.
Be aware: Pratchett didn't get to polish it as he would have liked, and it reads a little thin in places. Read it anyway. The opening chapters are among the most moving things he ever wrote.
Granny Weatherwax's Character Arc
Here's what ties the eleven books together. Granny starts as a cranky village witch who wins every argument. She ends as the most powerful witch on the Disc, who has spent her whole life choosing not to use that power for herself.
That's the trick of her arc. Pratchett slowly shows us that Granny's goodness isn't natural. She could easily be the wicked witch of the stories, and she knows it. Every book is another day of deciding not to be.
Across the series, we watch her:
- Bend the rules of the wizards for a girl who needs it (Equal Rites)
- Defend a kingdom she would rather ignore (Wyrd Sisters)
- Face the dark mirror of her own family (Witches Abroad)
- Confront the past she chose not to have (Lords and Ladies)
- Beat Ankh-Morpork at its own game (Maskerade)
- Hold onto her goodness through doubt and pain (Carpe Jugulum)
- Hand everything she knows to the next generation (the Tiffany books)
If you want to dig further, start with the burden of goodness and headology explained. And for how she compares to her best friend, see Granny Weatherwax vs Nanny Ogg.
Where to Start: Four Routes Through the Witches
The Full Journey: Read all eleven in the order above. Best if you already know you like Pratchett.
The Classic Route: Start with Wyrd Sisters, read through Carpe Jugulum, then go to the Tiffany books. Pick up Equal Rites whenever you're curious about Granny's early days. This is our recommendation.
The Short Route: Wyrd Sisters, Lords and Ladies, Carpe Jugulum. Three books, the full shape of the coven, and Pratchett at his strongest.
The Tiffany-First Route: Start with The Wee Free Men. It's ideal for younger readers or anyone who wants a single clean story arc, and Granny's later appearances work fine without the earlier books.
The Bottom Line
The Witches books are where Pratchett wrote most clearly about power: who has it, what it does to you, and what it costs to refuse to misuse it. Granny Weatherwax is the clearest answer he ever gave. She's terrifying, proud and difficult, and she's good, on purpose, every single day.
Start with Wyrd Sisters. Keep going until The Shepherd's Crown. Bring tissues for the last one.
Want more reading orders? See our Watch series reading order, the Discworld reading order flowchart, or our guide to where to start with Discworld.
