Dodger

once upon a time the word ‘crib’ meant, among many other things, a building, or place where you lived, and quite recently for some reason has come back again in the English-speaking countries.
    Victorian slang, and there was such a lot of it, can be a minefield. Looking at the world from Dodger’s point of view means that you can’t say ‘posh’, because that word had not yet been created. But nobby does the trick. It would be possible to fill up this book with appropriate slang, but sooner or later, well, it’s not there to be a textbook of slang and so I’ve left in some of the ones I liked. Unfortunately, I cannot find a place for my favourite piece of slang which is ‘tuppence more and up goes the donkey’ because, alas, it’s just a little bit too modern.
    And very short though
Dodger
is, I’ve been helped time and again by friends with particular expertise, and my thanks go out to Jacqueline Simpson, Bernard Pearson, Colin Smythe and Pat Harkin, who stopped me putting a foot wrong. Where one is wrong is probably my own dammed foot.
    I have to confess ahead of the game that certain tweaks were needed to get people in the right place at the right time – students of history will know that Tenniel didn’t illustrate his first
Punch
cover until 1850 and Sir Robert Peel was Home Secretary before Victoria came to the throne, for instance – but they are not particularly big tweaks, and besides,
Dodger
is a fantasy based on a reality. It was the devil’s own job to find out where the headquarters of the
Morning Chronicle
was. It seems that they changed offices periodically, so I’ve stuck them, for the purposes of
Dodger
, in Fleet Street – where they ought to have been anyway. This is a historical fantasy, and certainly not a historical novel. Simply for the fun of it, and also too, if possible, to get people interested in that era so wonderfully catalogued by Henry Mayhew and his fellows.
    Because although I may have tweaked the positions of people and possibly how they might have reacted in certain situations, the grime, squalor and hopelessness of an underclass which nevertheless survived, often by a means of self-help, I have not changed at all. It was also, however, a time without such things as education for all, health and safety, and most of the other rules and impediments that we take for granted today. And there was always room for the sharp and clever Dodgers, male and female.
    Terry Pratchett, 2012

About the Author
    Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld® series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic , was published in 1983. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he is the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. Worldwide sales of his books now stand at 70 million, and they have been translated into thirty-seven languages.
    For more information about Terry Pratchett and his books, please visit www.terrypratchett.co.uk

Also by Terry Pratchett
    The Discworld® series
    1. THE COLOUR OF MAGIC
    2. THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
    3. EQUAL RITES
    4. MORT
    5. SOURCERY
    6. WYRD SISTERS
    7. PYRAMIDS
    8. GUARDS! GUARDS!
    9. ERIC
    (illustrated by Josh Kirby)
    10. MOVING PICTURES
    11. REAPER MAN
    12. WITCHES ABROAD
    13. SMALL GODS
    14. LORDS AND LADIES
    15. MEN AT ARMS
    16. SOUL MUSIC
    17. INTERESTING TIMES
    18. MASKERADE
    19. FEET OF CLAY
    20. HOGFATHER
    21. JINGO
    22. THE LAST CONTINENT
    23. CARPE JUGULUM
    24. THE FIFTH ELEPHANT
    25. THE TRUTH
    26. THIEF OF TIME
    27. THE LAST HERO
    (illustrated by Paul Kidby)
    28. THE AMAZING MAURICE AND
    HIS EDUCATED RODENTS
    (for young adults)
    29. NIGHT WATCH
    30. THE WEE FREE MEN
    (for young adults)
    31. MONSTROUS REGIMENT
    32. A HAT FULL OF SKY
    (for young adults)
    33. GOING POSTAL
    34. THUD
    35. WINTERSMITH
    (for young adults)
    36. MAKING MONEY
    37. UNSEEN ACADEMICALS
    38. I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT
    (for young adults)
    39. SNUFF
    Other books about Discworld
    THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD
    (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)
    THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD II: THE GLOBE
    (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)
    THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD III:
    DARWIN’S WATCH
    (with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)
    THE NEW DISCWORLD COMPANION
    (with Stephen Briggs)
    NANNY OGG’S COOKBOOK
    (with Stephen Briggs, Tina Hannan and Paul Kidby)
    THE PRATCHETT PORTFOLIO
    (with Paul Kidby)
    THE DISCWORLD ALMANAK
    (with Bernard Pearson)
    THE UNSEEN UNIVERSITY CUT-OUT