Wyrd Sisters (Discworld #6; Witches #2) by Terry Pratchett

Format: Audio (Audible)
Read: August 2025

I loved re-reading Equal Rites in audio format, and Wyrd Sisters is even better! We’re six books into Discworld by this point, and I can tell Sir Terry was starting to get into his stride. Here, the characters are great, the story is good, and the satire is smartly layered with references to Macbeth exploring ideas of magic and destiny.

“She’d never mastered the talent for apologizing, but she appreciated it in other people.

Granny Weatherwax returns, and she has two fantastic new friends in her reluctant little coven. There is Nanny Ogg, who loves a drink and a laugh; she’s much more amiable with an army of extended family from her three past marriages, and lives a kept life taken care of by all of them. A fun contrast to Granny (who isn’t actually a grandmother, heaven forbid!) but no less formidable. The scenes with her in the dungeon were brilliant!

Then, Magrat Garlick is a younger maiden witch who has much more ‘modern’ ideas about witchcraft. She loves crystals, folk wisdom, herbalism and foregoes the traditional hat in favour of a lot of silver jewellery. She is a lot gentler in personality than Nanny or Granny, and the narrator of the audiobook (Indira Varma) did a very sweet voice for her! However, she is not as naive as she often sounds, and can do just as much with magic as the others!

“Witches just aren’t like that,” said Magrat. “We live in harmony with the great cycles of Nature, and do no harm to anyone, and it’s wicked of them to say we don’t. We ought to fill their bones with hot lead.”

The plot is essentially a parody of Macbeth. Most obviously, there are the three witches, a murdered King, an ambitious wife, and a ghost. There is a Shakespeare character in the form of Hwel the Dwarf, who got a delightful Welsh accent. I very much enjoyed a bit of Dwarf lore there, too! The Shakespearean references abound, and as a reader, it’s nice to feel smart for picking up on them.

“Destiny is important, see, but people go wrong when they think it controls them. It’s the other way around.”

Destiny and the power of words are the main themes, and the way the play was used to weave those together was clever. There are other great characters to – The Fool, Tomjon, and Greebo the cat!

I had a great time! I was laughing out loud in my garden last week while I was trimming the willow tree! I’ll be getting into Witches Abroad next, which I have never read before!