I’ve stuffed up. Or been caught out. The new Pratchett, Unseen Academicals, was due for release in the UK a couple of days ago. With memories of delays of up to a month between UK release and Oz (and 6+ months back in the 80s/early 90s), I ordered it from Amazon (along with Torchwood’s Children of Earth on DVD). Partly the delay and partly the price which I figured at around AUD$25-30 was going to be substantially cheaper than the local copy.

It appears it was released in Oz at the same time as the UK, and it was printed locally ie it was not an import. Admittedly it’s AUD$50 so I’ve paid nearly half that. However I’ve seen it in so many bookshops now, Melbourne & Sydney, and I’m not expecting my UK copy to arrive for another week. So I have deprived myself of the pleasure of reading it “now” and I’ve deprived local publishers a bit of cash.