Small Robots – aka @smolrobots – began with a simple idea: to draw cute robots and post them on Twitter. It was intended as an antidote of sorts to an embattled political landscape that, especially in the breakneck world of social media, can be physically draining to engage with. Small Robots would be kind, helpful and, when called upon, fiercely defensive of the marginalised and oppressed. All these aims were realised and then some, with the account growing rapidly to become a source of comfort, hope and even inspiration to its followers.

Now we want to give them their own book -- but we need your help to make this happen.

Small Robots offer fictional and often idiosyncratic solutions to everyday anxieties: they bring tea, remember names, complain in restaurants and all sorts of other minor jobs. But they also tackle more serious problems: mental health, disability, discrimination and grief. In doing so, they show that many of the problems we face are more universal than we imagined, and that all of them – big or small – are part of a single continuum of human experience.

If you'd like to help us make this book a reality, please consider pledging for one of the levels to the right. And here is what the book might look like...

The @smolrobots account has already created more than 500 robots. Now we'd like to give them their own book, which will feature 100 of the best and most beloved of the limitless stable of small, helpful bots and delve into the fictional backstories of these wonderful but sometimes bafflingly obtuse creations. It will also contain new art that puts the robots in context, illustrating how they perform their all-important tasks in the world of their large human friends.

The Small Robots project was created by Thomas Heasman-Hunt, a semi-professional author of science-fiction novels, among other things, and a not-even-a-little-bit-professional doodler of whatever pops into his head during meetings. His art is informed by his experiences of depression and anxiety, as well as his passion for equality and social justice.

*Images of the book are for illustrative purposes -- the final design will be confirmed after we hit our crowdfunding target and we can begin making the book!