Uncle Jim

From 1975-1980 Terry wrote regular stories for the Bucks Free Press, in the format of regular episodes. His pseudonym for this was Uncle Jim, who wrote in the Children's Circle section of the newspaper. He wrote a total of sixty-seven short stories for the paper, which were often published in several parts due to the limited space in the Children's Circle section. Several of these stories were made available on line in a partnership with Bucks Free Press at "terrypratchett.weebly.com". This did not pan out, unfortunately, and the website was shut down.

A more successful attempt to bring these stories to the public resulted in the story collection Dragons At Crumbling Castle and its sequels.

It is interesting to note that several ideas present in the later novels where being mulled over in these early days; Blackbury is used as a location several times, and there is an equivalent of Bergholt Stuttley Johnson in one tale. There is even an early version of The Carpet People, a story that would later be expanded into Truckers and a story that has some distinct similarity with the denizens of the Post Office.

Stories formerly available online

• Tales Of The Carpet People: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• Steam Operated House
• Thrist Pin: Part 1, Part 2

Collections of Uncle Jim Stories

• A Blink of the Screen
• Dragons At Crumbling Castle
• The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner
• Father Christmas's Fake Beard
• The Time-travelling Caveman
• A Stroke of the Pen

In other works

• Tales of the Carpet People included in the US version of The Carpet People Illustrated Edition.
• Humphrey Newt's Thunderbolt Carriage included in the WHSmith edition of Raising Steam.
• The Abominable Snowman released independently an an ebook.

External Links

terrypratchett.weebly.com (Archived Link)

Bucks Free Press Website

Contributions by Terry Pratchett to Periodicals, including stories in the Bucks Free Press