I Shall Wear Midnight

First published on 2 September 2010 by Doubleday. It is the thirty-eighth Discworld novel and the fourth Tiffany Aching book.

Tiffany is older and her responsibilities are real. The novel opens with a girl beaten for being pregnant and a man dying in poverty alone. Pratchett is describing the actual work of a community healer — unglamorous, necessary, and sometimes brutal — not just magical adventure.

The title comes from a traditional description of witches wearing black — 'I shall wear midnight' meaning darkness, not malice. The novel is partly about why communities fear the people who do the unglamorous necessary work.

The Cunning Man is the accumulated hatred of real witch burnings from the Disc's history — the entity formed from centuries of unjust persecution of women who were healers. The novel draws directly on the history of European witch trials.

Eskarina Smith — the protagonist of Equal Rites (1987) — makes a brief but meaningful appearance. She is the first female wizard, and her return after more than twenty novels was a significant moment for long-term Discworld readers.