Terry Pratchett's unfinished works crushed by steamroller

Sir Terry Pratchett's unfinished books have been crushed by a steamroller in accordance with the late fantasy author's wishes.

Approximately 10 books were ceremoniously crunched at the Great Dorset Steam Fair last week when Sir Terry's hard drive, on which the books in progress were stored, was flattened by a six-tonne vintage John Fowler & Co steamroller named Lord Jericho.

Rob Wilkins, who manages Pratchett's estate, tweeted on Friday (25th August) he was going to "fulfill my obligation to Terry", adding after the fact, "There goes the browsing history" with a photo of the crushed hardware. 

He also tweeted a meme, saying: "It’s as if a million readers suddenly cried out in horror”.

Richard Henry, curator of Salisbury Museum, told the BBC it was "surprisingly difficult to find somebody to run over a hard drive with a steamroller" but it was "really nice that they have followed his requests so specifically".

The crushed hard drive will be exhibited on display at the Salisbury Museum from 16th September until 13th January 2018.

After Sir Terry's death in March 2015, author Neil Gaiman told The Times the Discworld author had wanted "whatever he was working on at the time of his death to be taken out along with his computers, to be put in the middle of a road and for a steamroller to steamroll over them all".

Sir Terry's memorial was attended by more than 1,000 people at a ceremony in Barbican Theatre in April 2016, during which a number of future projects were revealed as per the wishes of Sir Terry, including that Gaiman would be writing an adaptation of his book with Pratchett Good Omens (Corgi) for television. The six-epsiode show, co-produced by Amazon and BBC Studios, and starring actors Michael Sheen and David Tennant, will air next year.