Hexwood. Diana Wynne Jones
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Diana Wynne Jones
HEXWOOD
ILLUSTRATED BY TIM STEVENS
First published by Methuen Children’s Books Ltd 1993
First published in paperback by Collins 2000 Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1993
Illustration by Tim Stevens 2000
The author and illustrator assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work.
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Source ISBN: 9780006755265
Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007440184 Version: 2018-06-21
For Neil Gaiman
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
PART ONE
1
2
3
4
5
PART TWO
1
2
3
4
5
PART THREE
1
2
3
4
5
PART FOUR
1
2
3
4
5
PART FIVE
1
2
3
4
5
PART SIX
1
2
3
4
5
PART SEVEN
1
2
3
4
5
PART EIGHT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
PART NINE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Other Works
About the Publisher
The letter was in Earth script, unhandily scrawled in blobby blue ballpoint. It said:
Hexwood Farm
Wednesday 3 March 1993
Dear Sector Controller,
We though we better send to you in Regional straight off. We got a right problem here. This fool clerk, calls hisself Harrison Scudmore, he went and started one of these old machines running, the one with all the Reigner seals on it, says he overrode the computers to do it. When we say a few words about that, he turns round and says he was bored, he only wanted to make the best all-time football team, you know King Arthur in goal, Julius Ceasar for striker, Napoleon midfield, only this team is for real, he found out this machine can do that, which it do. Trouble is we don’t have the tools nor the training to get the thing turned off, nor we can’t see where the power’s coming from, the thing’s got afield like you wouldn’t believe and it won’t let us out of the place. Much obliged if you could send a trained operative at your earliest convenience.