Three vending machines have been installed at Canary Wharf in London to distribute free short stories printed on environmentally friendly paper, as a venture by the French company Short Edition. Featured authors include Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf, as well as Mrs Robinson, a newly commissioned tale by bestselling crime writer Anthony Horowitz. Readers in a hurry can select stories by the time it takes to read then, one minute, three minutes or five.
Of his story, Anthony Horowitz said, ‘Here’s a whodunnit, complete with suspects and clues, that can be started and finished in just a minute I hope it will entertain tube travellers who will know, at least, that they won’t have the frustration of having to get off before the end!’