Talk:Book:Good Omens

The American paperback version

Ace Books/Putnam Berkely publishing group, New York 1996.

I picked this up second-hand to replace my lost copy of the British pb version... I thought it looked and felt a little strange until I checked out the publishers' details.

I can't believe that when a British novel makes it to the USA, the American publishers evidently employ somebody to go through every page and alter British English spellings into American, with all that implies for page continuity and typesetting. (not to mention expense). I mean - why on earth bother? We don't do that with American novels coming to Britain, what a waste of time and effort! We know "math" and "honor" and "color" and "aluminum" are local peculiarities of American English, and somehow an American-written novel set in America feels more right with these spellings. They go with the turf, after all. Shame a British-written novel set in Britain can't be similarly treated in the USA, but there y'go...

Whoever did the rewrite into American also thought they were correcting a (non-existant) error on page 32, concerning the Arrangement between Crowley and Aziraphale...

If one was going to Hull for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip accross the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

In the American paperback, somebody unaware of the existence of a fishing port city on the Humber estuary, on the Yorkshire-Lincolnshire border, has altered this to read

If one was going to Hell for a quick temptation, it made sense to nip accross the city and carry out a standard brief moment of divine ecstacy....

It's Hull[1], fellas. Admittedly the difference is a subtle one when faced with a force ten off the North Sea, or by its truculent and fist-happy local MP[2], but there is a very definite absence of demons, most of the time. --AgProv 13:56, 18 January 2008 (CET)

That would be Hell, Michigan. (You know, where Alfred Spangler comes from.) --Old Dickens 14:09, 18 January 2008 (CET)

Well, as the dyslexic demon screamed through a mouthful of pea-green soup, Your mother cooks socks in Hull!--AgProv 15:11, 18 January 2008 (CET)