Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman have said, “Good Omens was written by two people who at the time were not at all well known except by the people who already knew them.” Considering the book was originally published in 1990, I must concede they are correct on that point. Neil Gaiman found considerable success with the Sandman series, Neverwhere and American Gods. Terry Prachett’s Discworld series garnered him millions of fans. But in the latter part of the eighties, these things were not yet true. The two aspiring authors collaborated to write this hilarious and irreverent send-up of the Apocalypse.

It was the blurb on the back of the book that caught my attention. Even more than the authors involved:

According to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655, before she exploded), the world will end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just before dinner. So the armies of Good and Evil are amassing, Atlantis is rising, frogs are falling, tempers are flaring. Everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon—both of whom have lived amongst Earth’s mortals since The Beginning and have grown rather fond of the lifestyle—are not actually look forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Anticrist…