Going Postal was published by Doubleday in 2004. It is the thirty-third Discworld novel and the first in the “Moist von Lipwig” subseries — following a conman offered redemption through public service, in what became Pratchett’s most politically pointed examination of corporate capitalism and the destruction of public institutions.
Moist von Lipwig is a confidence trickster — brilliant, charming, utterly amoral. He is caught, sentenced to hang, and then offered a choice by Lord Vetinari (the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Pratchett’s Machiavellian ruler): die, or become Postmaster General of the city’s defunct Post Office. The Post Office has been dead for decades — killed by the “Grand Trunk” (a semaphore-telegraph network, the Disc’s equivalent of a privatized telecommunications monopoly), which has rendered mail obsolete while providing unreliable, expensive service that enriches its shareholders and impoverishes everyone else.
Moist’s assignment is to resurrect the postal service — and Pratchett uses this premise to examine everything wrong with privatization: the Grand Trunk was originally a public good (built by visionary engineers) that was acquired by financiers (the Lavish family) who extracted value, cut investment, worked staff to death, and delivered progressively worse service while paying themselves enormous dividends. The parallels to real-world privatization of British Rail, Royal Mail, and telecommunications services are deliberate and devastating.
But the novel is not merely satirical: it is also a genuine caper — Moist’s conman skills (showmanship, misdirection, the ability to make people believe) are precisely what the Post Office needs to compete with the Grand Trunk. His reformation is ambiguous: he becomes genuinely invested in the Post Office (competence is addictive) but never entirely loses his criminal instincts. Pratchett suggests that the difference between a conman and a legitimate businessman is not moral but institutional: Moist’s confidence tricks, directed toward public good rather than private enrichment, become leadership.
Collecting Going Postal
First edition (Doubleday, London, 2004): Hardcover, dust jacket by Paul Kidby.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $30–$75
- Signed first edition: $100–$250
- Without jacket: $8–$15
One of the most politically engaged Discworld novels and a fan favourite. The 2010 Sky television adaptation (starring Richard Coyle) provides additional collector interest.