Jasper Fforde
Jasper Fforde | |
---|---|
![]() Jasper Fforde at the 2012 Texas Book Festival. | |
Born | London, England | 11 January 1961
Occupation | novelist |
Genre | Alternate history, Comic fantasy |
Literary movement | Postmodern literature |
Website | |
http://www.jasperfforde.com/ |
Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and has begun two more independent series, The Last Dragonslayer and Shades of Grey.
Family
Fforde was born in London on 11 January 1961, the son of John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England (whose signature appeared on sterling banknotes during his time in office). He is the cousin, by her marriage to Desmond Fforde, of the author Katie Fforde,[1] the grandson of Polish political adviser Joseph Retinger,[2] and a great-grandson of journalist E. D. Morel.
Early life
Fforde was educated at the progressive Dartington Hall School, and his early career was spent as a focus puller in the film industry, where he worked on a number of films, including The Trial, Quills, GoldenEye, and Entrapment.[3]
Novels
Fforde published his first novel, The Eyre Affair, in 2001.
His published books include a series of novels starring the literary detective Thursday Next: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels, One of our Thursdays Is Missing and The Woman Who Died a Lot. The Eyre Affair had received 76 publisher rejections before its eventual acceptance for publication.[4] Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots.[5]
The Big Over Easy (2005), set in the same alternative universe as the Next novels, is a reworking of his first written novel, which initially failed to find a publisher. Its original title was Who Killed Humpty Dumpty?,[6] and later had the working title of Nursery Crime, which is the title now used to refer to this series of books. These books describe the investigations of DCI Jack Spratt. The follow-up to The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear, was published in July 2006 and focuses on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Fforde's books are noted for their profusion of literary allusions and word play, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres. His works usually contain various elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy. None of his books has a chapter 13 except in the table of contents where there is a title of the chapter and a page number. In many of the books the page number is, in fact, the page right before the first page of chapter 14. However, in some the page number is just a page somewhere in chapter 12.
Shades of Grey, the first novel in a new series, was published December 2009 in the US and January 2010 in the UK. The sixth Thursday Next novel One of our Thursdays is Missing was published in February 2011.[7]
Fforde also plans a third Nursery Crime novel, The Last Great Tortoise Race:
The Last Great Tortoise Race will be the third and final instalment of the NCD series. Current Publishing schedule: 2014.[8]
In November 2010 he produced The Last Dragonslayer, unconnected with his other works but similar in style. The book is the first in a trilogy.[9] The second book in the series, The Song of the Quarkbeast, was released in November 2011.[needs update]
Short stories
In 2009, Fforde published a story in the Welsh edition of the UK Big Issue magazine (a magazine distributed by the homeless) called "We are all alike" (previously called "The Man with no face").[10] He also published "The Locked Room Mystery mystery" [sic] in the UK Guardian newspaper in 2007, and this story remains online.[11] The U.S. version of Well of Lost Plots features a bonus chapter (34b) called "Heavy Weather", a complete story in itself, featuring Thursday Next in her position as Bellman.
Other interests
Fforde has an interest in aviation, and owns and flies a Rearwin Skyranger.
Bibliography
- Thursday Next
- The Eyre Affair (2001)
- Lost in a Good Book (2002)
- The Well of Lost Plots (2003)
- Something Rotten (2004)
- First Among Sequels (2007)
- One of our Thursdays is Missing (2011)
- The Woman Who Died a Lot (2012) [12]
- Dark Reading Matter (TBA)[13]
- Nursery Crime Division
- The Big Over Easy (2005)
- The Fourth Bear (2006)
- The Last Great Tortoise Race (TBA)
- Shades of Grey
- Shades of Grey (2010) (Title on the cover), Shades of Grey 1: The Road to High Saffron (Title from the title page); the book ends with a note that the main characters Brunswick & deMauve will return in:
- Shades of Grey 2: Painting by Numbers
- Shades of Grey 3: The Gordini Protocols
- Untitled Shades of Grey Standalone Prequel (2015)[14]
- Shades of Grey (2010) (Title on the cover), Shades of Grey 1: The Road to High Saffron (Title from the title page); the book ends with a note that the main characters Brunswick & deMauve will return in:
- The Dragonslayer trilogy
- The Last Dragonslayer (2010)
- The Song of the Quarkbeast (2011) [15]
- The Last Dragonslayer III: The Return of Shandar (announced for 2013) [16]
- Standalone Novels
Fforde Ffiesta
Originating with the Fforde Ffestival in September 2005, the Fforde Ffiesta (cf. Ford Fiesta) is now an annual event built around Fforde's books and held in Thursday Next's home town of Swindon. Held over the May bank holiday weekend, people travel from as far away as Australia and the USA to take part in a wide range of events, including a re-enacting of gameshow Name That Fruit, Hamlet Speed Reading competitions and interactive performances of Richard III.
References
- ^ "Jasper Fforde Fan club FfAQs". Retrieved 13 January 2008.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde website". Retrieved 16 June 2010.
- ^ Jasper Fforde at IMDb
- ^ John Sutherland (26 July 2003). "If it's Thursday it must be the valley of death". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
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(help) - ^ John Ezard (31 May 2004). "Lost Plots gains a prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
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(help) - ^ Peter Guttridge (19 June 2005). "Back off or Humpty Dumpty gets it". The Observer. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
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(help) - ^ "Jasper Fforde's twitter page". Twitter.com. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved 26 June 2011.
- ^ "Dragonslayer page". Retrieved 6 February 2011.
- ^ Jasper Fforde's website. http://www.jasperfforde.com/bookshelf/bookother_6.html
- ^ Guardian website. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/dec/24/extract.originalwriting
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : Next Book, New Page: News of upcoming publications". Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : What's New, Fforde News Flash 23rd Feb 2012". Retrieved 24 February 2012.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde Official Site 'Next Book'". Retrieved 22 March 2013.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : What's New". Retrieved 25 May 2011.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : Next Book". Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com: Next Book". Retrieved 25 April 2012.
- ^ "Jasper Fforde.com". Retrieved 22 February 2011.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Official website
- Thursday Next website - no longer an active link
- Home of the series of Nursery Crime books
- The Fforde Ffiesta, annual fan gathering
- Jasper Fforde at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Jasper Fforde at IMDb
- A radio interview Aired on the Lewis Burke Frumkes Radio Show in January 2010