h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought that there was some extreme hinting in the book that 'The Fray' was someone walking across the carpet.
It's been a while since I read it, but isn't there some references to the pattern of 'The Fray' striking in a line?
And didn't the main character travel throughout the different shades of carpet colour? Perhaps the area of the book is substantially larger than that of a book...
Terry Pratchett's books carry a lot of hidden or not too obvious meaning. So much in fact that I've found myself pondering over things that just weren't there all too often...a wierd name is often just a wierd name, not an anagram or corruption...

It took a couple of readings, but I definitely thought Fray was someone walking across the carpet. Havent read this for a few years..

I agree wholeheartedly that The Fray is someone walking across the carpet. I would also suggest that the 'foot' only strikes the edges of the area described in the book - which is why I maintain the size of the area is only about that of a paperback. No doubt The Fray troubles other areas - and attacks have filtered back through rumours and gossip carried by traders from far off lands.

At a signing a couple of years ago I asked Terry to draw Ware on the inside cover - and it was the size of a full stop - . - slightly larger than that. Given that the substantial capital city of the Carpet lands described is that big, you could probably fit tens of thousands of Carpet People in that spot. To a person that big, an area the size of a paperback is BIG! The size of England or a smallish-sized US state, probably. A few hundred miles across.

The Apprentice