Unfinished work of fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett destroyed by a steamroller
The crushed hard drive will go up on display at an exhibition on the author’s life from September.
A hard drive containing unfinished works of author Terry Pratchett was crushed by a steamroller in the United Kingdom, as per the novelist’s wishes, The Guardian reported on Wednesday. Fantasy novelist Pratchett had died in March 2015 at the age of 66 after fighting Alzheimer’s disease.
It is believed that up to 10 incomplete novels were crushed at the Great Dorset Steam Fair on August 25, ahead of the exhibition about Pratchett’s life, “Terry Pratchett: His World” at Salisbury museum in September. The crushed hard drive will go on display at the museum during the exhibition.
Following his death, fellow writer Neil Gaiman had said that Pratchett had wanted to put his incomplete work, along with his computers, “in the middle over a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all”, The Times had reported in August 2015. The curator of Salisbury Museum, Richard Henry, said Pratchett did not want his unpublished works to be completed by someone else and then released, BBC reported.
Before the hard drive was crushed, Pratchett’s assistant Rob Wilkins tweeted he was about to “fulfil his obligation” to the author.
Pratchett, the writer of over 70 novels, is known for his comic fantasy work including Discworld, Good Omens, and Nation. After he was diagnosed in 2007 with Alzheimer’s disease, he continued to write and publish with assistance of others. The Long Utopia and The Shepherd’s Crown, the final Discworld novel, were published posthumously.