Evil Machines
Encyclopedia
Evil Machines is a 2011 book of fantasy stories written by Monty Python
's Terry Jones
. The book has a cover design and illustrations by Ryan Gillard and Keira Kinsella.
The book is the first in the World to have been published by a crowd funding
website which is solely dedicated to books, www.Unbound.co.uk.
The book contains thirteen short stories linked by a common theme which emerges part way through the series. The concept for the stories came to Jones in a car - "I was actually driving across London and I think I got held up by a red traffic light and suddenly the phrase, "Evil machines", drifted across my mind and I thought "Well that's a good title and I could use that", so I went home and started writing the stories"
The stories became the libretto for an opera staged in Lisbon
in 2008 and Jones always intended to re-write them. However other events intervened and he left them as-was until a conversation with Justin Pollard
of Unbound prompted their publication several years after they were first written.
The story listing is as follows:
The launch took place on Friday 4th of November 2011 at the Adam Street Club, London, UK. The UK media celebrity Stephen Fry
was an expected guest but unable to attend due to a late flight into Dubai. At the launch Jones indicated that "The Nice Bomb" and "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go" were probably the two stories of which he was most fond.
The stories generally feature a sting in the tail, with, for example, the UK City of Swindon being lampooned in "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go".
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's Terry Jones
Terry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
. The book has a cover design and illustrations by Ryan Gillard and Keira Kinsella.
The book is the first in the World to have been published by a crowd funding
Crowd funding
Crowd funding describes the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations...
website which is solely dedicated to books, www.Unbound.co.uk.
The book contains thirteen short stories linked by a common theme which emerges part way through the series. The concept for the stories came to Jones in a car - "I was actually driving across London and I think I got held up by a red traffic light and suddenly the phrase, "Evil machines", drifted across my mind and I thought "Well that's a good title and I could use that", so I went home and started writing the stories"
The stories became the libretto for an opera staged in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
in 2008 and Jones always intended to re-write them. However other events intervened and he left them as-was until a conversation with Justin Pollard
Justin Pollard
Justin David Pollard is a British historian, television producer and writer.-Biography:Pollard is a popular historian and screenwriter working in the field of feature films, television and print...
of Unbound prompted their publication several years after they were first written.
The story listing is as follows:
- The Truthful Phone
- The Nice Bomb
- The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go
- Motorbike Theives
- The Kidnap Car
- The Vacuum Cleaner That Was Too Powerful
- The Train to Anywhere
- The Rocket to Hell
- The Dog Maker and Other Wonders
- The Day Things Started to Go Wrong
- The Castle of Imagination
- The End of Life
- The Love Machine
The launch took place on Friday 4th of November 2011 at the Adam Street Club, London, UK. The UK media celebrity Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter and film director, and a director of Norwich City Football Club. He first came to attention in the 1981 Cambridge Footlights Revue presentation "The Cellar Tapes", which also...
was an expected guest but unable to attend due to a late flight into Dubai. At the launch Jones indicated that "The Nice Bomb" and "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go" were probably the two stories of which he was most fond.
The stories generally feature a sting in the tail, with, for example, the UK City of Swindon being lampooned in "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go".