LONDON, United Kingdom – British rap star Chipmunk today helped launch the first British novel written on a mobile phone, in an effort to inspire kids to produce their own books. The Perfect Poison Pill Plot was penned by Horrible Histories author Terry Deary on a Nokia E7 E6 (good thumb-skills there!) in the Japanese micro-novel format called keitai. And 20-year-old Chipmunk has released his narrated version in five short video clips which you can see here. 

Londoner Chipmunk, who went Platinum with his debut album, said: “I was lucky because my dad forced me to read, refusing to let me out to play football with my friends until I had done my reading.”

With a slide-out QWERTY keypad and four-inch touchscreen, the E7 was the perfect phone to produce the work of sixteen 100-word chapters.

Deary, 65, who has sold 25 million books, said: “The greatest writers write for the medium of their time. For Dickens it was magazines, for Shakespeare it was theatre in the round. If Dickens were alive today, he’d be writing Keitai novels for mobile phones.

“This demonstrates just how easy it can be to have a creative outlet wherever you are, particularly for today’s young adults, who are so inherently familiar with technology.”

Nokia donated £10,000 to a Get London Reading appeal by London’s Evening Standard newspaper.

John Nichols, marketing director at Nokia UK, said: “We are delighted to support the Standard’s campaign.

“We believe electronic media, and mobile phones in particular, have an important role to play to create, read and share stories on the go, and we’re delighted to see Terry and Chipmunk using our technology to such good effect.

“Both artists engage young adults through their art, and we hope that combining their influence with the appetite for keitai will help make a difference.”

Don’t forget to hit the Nokia Facebook Page link for the video clips. And, if you’re in the UK, you could win a new Nokia QWERTY smartphone with your own short story.