There is a table at which our family has sat for over twenty years and shared laughter and love with our friends.

Over the years more and more fans sought us out and became firm friends and boon companions within the World of Disc. Time came for us to stop potting, move on, and to seek warmer climes. What better way to start a new life than to build a bigger table? What better way to share with our friends all that we have created from the writings of a truly remarkable man than a small shop in a small market town, somewhere where the climate was warm, somewhere where the booze was cheap and the bakeshop nearby.

We chose Wincanton, half an hour from Stonehenge, in the middle of some delicious countryside, and near to some of Somerset’s finest cider makers.

Our small shop is in fact just a bloody big table. In fact so bloody big that we can spread over it all manner of stuff, from the sublime to the gor-blimey, but all associated with Discworld.

We're just as ready to put the kettle on and brew up, or sidle off to the pub up the road, or even indulge in the sacred rite of ‘sticky bun’, so no change there then.  But more room, and lots more to see. We have the added bonus of being able to offer the serious collector or casual reader some of the finest ever Discworld creations.  It's a place to meet with other fans, a place to use as a starting point for holidays or weekend breaks.

A place where you're taken as read.

A place where Discworld becomes real.

So real, in fact, that we are also the official Ankh-Morpork Consulate Office, the official Wincanton branch of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office, and of the Royal Ankh-Morpork Savings Bank, all in a town which is now officially twinned with Ankh-Morpork. 

As if that isn't fun enough, we organise events at least twice a year to which Discworld fans can come and mingle with like-minded folk and do extremely silly things in the name of charity - you will find information about these in our News section.  And we are also now the headquarters of the British Heritage Joke Foundation, which you can find out more about on our Links page.

About our products

The buildings are what attracted Discworld fans to us, and although we will not be making any new ones, we still have a few available.  Most are limited editions. We rarely offered more than 500 in any edition, and some may well be less. We did this for two reasons. Firstly, we feel that quality is very important. The perils of mass production are not for us and the small team who work with us are probably some of the most skilled in their craft. Secondly we are all too aware that because of the very high standards of craftsmanship and the raw materials employed we can never make anything cheap. The casting material is a unique blend of minerals and natural resins which we have developed over the last 10 years, and of course everything we make is hand painted. These factors alone dictate that excellence comes at a price.

However our editions do sell out quickly, and eventually demand always outstrips supply. This has lead to a vibrant secondary market which according to our collectors is giving them a very healthy return if ever they decide to sell pieces. Not that that's what collecting is all about, but it does help to know that if all else fails, our little bits will one day make you a little bit more.

But you will also find that we sell plenty of much more easily affordable things, jewellery in pewter and silver, games, pewter hooks and keyrings, t-shirts, bags, posters and, of course, stamps.  Like the cast pieces they are all inspired by Discworld, and they are also made with care and craft. 

 About us

Bernard Pearson

How can we describe ‘the stout party’ who sits at the helm of The Discworld Emporium like an overlarge figurehead?   Well in fact the ‘figurehead’ analogy is quite a good one, if you can imagine a figurehead that is slightly too large and cumbersome for the vessel it is nailed to.  And if anything, it does tend to make the boat over steer, and dip alarmingly towards the bottom in anything but a gentle swell.  But like any figurehead it is he who braves the storms, points the way ahead, and rides the waves.

Well he would if he wasn’t so bloody heavy.

But enough of this nautical analogy, what does he do?  Actually, not very much, but he does have the talent for making even that look frightfully busy, and almost important.

He is very good with tobacco however,  The mountains of ash, the holes in his clothes, the myriad of pipes testify to this, as does the constant cloud of tobacco smoke he is perpetually hidden behind.  If truth were to tell, it really is impossible to give any accurate description of the fellow, apart from ‘he’s in there somewhere, don’t startle him, or he’ll cover us with ash’.

He is blamed for starting many things, the stamp thing amongst them, but he will own up to nothing, save an undying love for his Lady, his children, and the persons he was born to dote on, his grandchildren.  Occasionally he has ‘ideas’ and ‘cunning plans, but thanks to years of careful management by Isobel nothing much ever comes of them, and in any case he is easily distracted by the offer of a pint from a collector, or more likely the laughter of his grandchildren.

Isobel Pearson

For years, well from the very beginning it was Isobel who really made things happen.   No fuss, not much bother, just tying the ends, filling the middle, and making a start, that was Isobel’s job, it’s what she did.   She mixed the glaze, made the pots - not the big, ungainly extravagances that Bernard was wont to construct, she made the pots that paid the rent, the ones that people had actually ordered.   She packed them in big boxes as well, wrote the invoices, paid the bills, and remembered, not just where the children had left their socks, but when the kiln needed turning off.  Without complaint, getting on with it, plus four children, cats, chickens, an acre of garden, and a husband on ‘random hold’ for most of the time.  She kept it all in her head like knitting, and rarely dropped a stitch. 

Of later years, the children grown, the business moved to the soft hills of the West Country she looked to take things just a little easier, a little steadier, to coast down the hill, a bit of freewheeling, a glide now and then, a gentle perambulation. Like hell.  Stamps happened. 

For someone whose early childhood had been spent during the Second World War, a married life with Bernard was no less uncertain, without the bombs perhaps, but sadly not the explosions, though there was bunting, and occasionally grand parades, and always, always their shared love and laughter.

She plans to retire, she thinks she might like it, but not just yet.

Vince Cowdrey

Vince has worked with Bernard and Isobel for more than 20 years but is still almost sane.  Over the years he has had to learn an extraordinary range of skills to accommodate each of Bernard's new and cunning plans.  Having mastered mould-making and resin-casting, Bernard shifted to stamp design, leaving Vince with the job of perfecting perforating, which he can now do with uncanny accuracy.  (There's one thing he can do with perforations that we can't BEGIN to figure out how he does it.  Not for nothing is he known as the 'perforating pixie'.)  As if that wasn't enough,  he has now added pewter casting to his repertoire.

Vince considers himself immune to the enticements of Discworld, but we will break him in the end, even if it takes another 20 years.

Hilary Daniels

Hilary has worked with Bernard and Isobel for two years and claims it's the most fun you can have that's still legal, even though it was a night in hospital courtesy of a lorry driver that introduced her to Discworld, and a series of unfortunate incidents that led her to the Discworld Emporium.  Om certainly does move in mysterious ways.

Hilary is responsible for kicking Bernard when Isobel's buttock-prodding has not produced results, and for pinning things on his To-Do board for him to ignore.  She is usually the one who answers the phones, and if there is an error with your order, it'll be her fault, although she'll deny any responsibility.  But then she also denies having a drink problem.

How to find us