Jan Van Quirm wrote:Hi there Joe
In Sourcery the Patrician was turned into a lizard and the Librarian looke after him and his little dog - Wuffles? - so that must have been Vetinari. The Patrician in CoM & LF was more a 'Blofeld' type and ate candied echinoderms... could well still have been Vetinari but in
Nightwatch didn't we read something about Vetinari's predecessor or the one before him had a fondness for sea urchins?
I couldn't find any reference to sea urchins or echinoderms in Night Watch. "Urchin" was used several times, but only when referring to the young Nobbs.
Sea Urchins were mention in Pyramids in a conversation between Teppic and Chidder. Also, Anghammarad in Going Postal said that he saw many sea urchins during his long wait at the bottom of the sea. In Sorcery a man named Miskin Koble had a stall selling, among other things, jellied starfish.
I don't know if it's relevant, but Ponder used to collect starfish when he was a boy.
It seems that sea urchins & starfish are not an uncommon food in the city of Ankh-Morpork and therefore can't be used to identify a particular person by their eating habits.
mspanners wrote:That is the point, in most of the books Vetinari is a tall thin man with a vampire like appearance who thinks water and bread a meal, whose build was described as so thin an assassins blade would be hard to find its target......(Watered down Hammer Horror type, in the art work to.. the chap who played the Patrican in the TV Colour of Magic was spot on for casting as Vetinari in my view)
BUT in the book The Colour of Magic the patrician was a short man with double chins and beringed finger who, as stated, feasted on crystalised sea foods and treats.
He did have some of the inane Humor of Vetinari and the dark clarks but any despot would have secret Policemen.
And I can not see Vetinari threatening Rincewind with torture to placate an invasion force... IF Vetinari were to have someone murdered He would have it done quietly...... I just do not see him as the mad torturing type.... Well not physical torture anyway, Mental torture yes but not disembowelment surly.
Vetinari was known to keep a scorpion pit into which he threw mimes. Also, in Guards! Guards! he was thrown into his own dungeon which contained rats, snakes, and scorpions, although he suggests that this was over-exuberance on the part of his captor, Wonse. He also went through the physical hanging of Moist Von Lipvig, followed by the threat of finishing the job, in order to give him the proper incentive to get the Post Office working again.
I agree that the physical descriptions don't match very well but other characters change appearance over time too. The wizards were originally thin and Lady Ramkin seems to have shrunk a bit in later books. I don't know if these were supposed to be the same character, but Krysoprase in the Light Fanstastic was a craggy, moss-covered troll, while Crysoprase in Soul Music was smooth and glossy. Recurring characters in long series can often change dramatically throughout the series.
Besides, as Tonyblack has pointed out, the author has identified him as Vetinari.
No I don't think so - I adore seafood mostly and I've never come across either of them on a menu when I did still go out to fancy London restaurants 
I live quite near to Padstow where Rick Stein (famous for his fish and seafood cooking) has several restaurants and they don't do them there either (just checked - nada)
