Back in the eons of time, a man called Alan Winton (see below for more details) started to buy Discworld Books and Merchandise. It was a dangerous thing to start, as the addiction then took hold. Years later he found himself with a huge collection of Discworld merchandise and decided to show it to the world! So Alan Wintons Discworld Website was born.

As the site began to grow and take shape, more and more was added to enhance the collection pages, with competitions and Pratchett related news stories being added. But the site was still in the realms of a 'Personal Fan Site' of which there are many, but it had potential to be so much more...

Eventually the time came for Alan Wintons website to be rebranded and redesigned. As a programmer himself he knew he could build a good site, but needed someone with an eye for design to add the more creative touches. John Pagan (see below for more details) then found himself dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically, of course) into a surprisingly intensive design project!

Hundreds (well, it felt like it) of possible names were put forward, and eventually narrowed down to the now familiar Bonsai Discworld. The look of the site was to be clean and simple, but ALSO colourful, chunky and fun, and having something of the 'Discworld' feel to it. It was then pieced together layer by layer, drop menus for ease of use, with some features also having animated buttons as shortcuts. Large headlines to help people go straight to what they want. The collection pages reorganised into 'bite-size' chunks to save on download time. Discworld touches were sprinkled around liberally, like the magic crackling through the books page banner, with pictures of all kinds of Discworld Artwork and Merchandise being used across many of the pages.

More and more was added, with a Trading Post, searchable Database, exclusive articles by some of the leading Discworld figures, and many other features to make the site more of a place to visit, and give plently of Discworld material for visitors to immerse themselves in. In fact with the chance to send in Book Reviews or Discworld drawings for inclusion on the site, you can even become a permanent part of Bonsai Discworld.

Bonsai is, as it will always be, under construction. There are always new features in the pipeline, with all the existing ones being scrutinised for improvements. If you have any suggestions for new features or improvements you would like to see, then please email us on .

Oh, and we hope you enjoy the site!

Alan Winton and John Pagan

What? I have to write this bit myself? Oh right then, this should be quick...

Well, I was born way back in 1973, currently living in Blackburn, Lancashire with my fiancee Sandra. I have the strange misfortune to be working as a Graphic Designer in Manchester, designing mainly print based media such as promotional booklets, catalogues and leaflets, with the odd venture into web design.

I probably spend FAR too much of my time immersed in Discworld, either reading the books, buying the merchandise, lurking on forums, or working on this site! No... delete the 'probably'.

I live in the permanent hope the list of DIY jobs I have for my house will ever get shorter, so I can find a (fully decorated and furnished) corner to crawl into and get some sleep.

Other interests, as if I have any time, include Science Fiction in general, Star Trek in particular, anything to do with Animation (big John Lassiter fan, even before Toy Story when only most people would go 'Who?'), and I used to be a trained piano player (experience has taught me to avoid the word 'pianist') but nowadays I just kinda hit the piano keys and hope for the best... which doesn't seem to work very well...

If I find out anything else about myself, I'll let you all know!

John Pagan