Evil Machines facts for kids

Evil Machines is a super fun book of fantasy stories from 2011. It was written by Terry Jones, who you might know from the famous comedy group Monty Python. The book's cool cover and pictures inside were made by Ryan Gillard and Keira Kinsella.

About Evil Machines

This book is special because it was the first ever to be published by a website called Unbound.co.uk. This website helps authors get their books made by asking people to support them financially. This way of getting help from a lot of people is called crowd funding. It's like a community coming together to make a book happen!

How the Stories Began

Terry Jones got the idea for "Evil Machines" in a funny way. He was driving in London and stopped at a red light. Suddenly, the words "Evil machines" popped into his head! He thought it would be a great title for a book. So, he went home and started writing the stories right away.

The stories in the book were first used for an opera in Lisbon back in 2008. Terry Jones always planned to rewrite them for a book. But other things came up, and he left them as they were. Later, a chat with Justin Pollard from Unbound helped get the stories published. This happened several years after they were first written.

What's Inside the Book?

The book has thirteen short stories. They are all connected by a special theme that you discover as you read. Each story is a new adventure!

Here are the stories you'll find:

• The Truthful Phone
• The Nice Bomb
• The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go
• Motorbike Thieves
• 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 Book's Big Launch

The book was officially launched on Friday, November 4, 2011. This special event took place at the Adam Street Club in London, UK. At the launch, Terry Jones shared his favorite stories from the book. He said he was most fond of "The Nice Bomb" and "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go."

Many of the stories have a surprising twist at the end. For example, in "The Lift That Took People to Places They Didn't Want to Go," the UK city of Swindon is playfully made fun of.