Jasper Fforde

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Jasper Fforde
Jasper fforde 2012.jpg
Fforde at the 2012 Texas Book Festival
Born (1961-01-11) 11 January 1961 (age 63)
London, England
OccupationNovelist
Genre Alternative history, comic fantasy
Literary movement Postmodern literature
Website
jasperfforde.com

Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) [1] is an English novelist whose first novel, The Eyre Affair , was published in 2001. He is known mainly for his Thursday Next novels, but has also published two books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series, two in the Shades of Grey series and four in The Last Dragonslayer series. Fforde's books abound in literary allusions and wordplay, tightly scripted plots and playfulness with the conventional, traditional genres. They usually contain elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy.

Contents

Early life

Fforde was born in London on 11 January 1961, the son of John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England. [2] He is a grandson of the Polish political activist, Joseph Retinger, and a great-grandson of the journalist E. D. Morel. [3]

Fforde was educated at Dartington Hall School. In his first jobs, he worked as a focus puller in the film industry. He worked on a number of films, including The Trial , Quills , GoldenEye , The Mask of Zorro , and Entrapment . [4]

Novels

Fforde's 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. [5]

Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots. [6] Several streets in the Thames Reach housing development in Swindon have been named after characters in the series. [7]

The Big Over Easy (2005), set in the same alternative universe as the Next novels, reworks his first written novel, which initially failed to find a publisher. Its original title was Who Killed Humpty Dumpty? [8] It was later entitled Nursery Crime, which now refers to the series of books. These 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.

Shades of Grey , the first novel in a new series, was published December 2009 in the United States and January 2010 in the United Kingdom. The sequel Red Side Story was published in February 2024 in the United Kingdom and May the same year in the United States. [9]

In November 2010 Fforde produced The Last Dragonslayer , the first novel in a new series. It is a young-adult fantasy novel about a teenage orphan Jennifer Strange [10] which has been adapted for television. [11] Two more books have been published in the series, The Song of the Quarkbeast (2011) and The Eye of Zoltar (2014). The series was originally planned as a trilogy, [12] but a fourth book in the series was announced in 2014, The Great Troll War (2021). [13]

Short stories

In 2009, Fforde published a story in the Welsh edition of Big Issue magazine called "We are all alike" (previously "The Man with no Face"). [14]

He also published "The Locked Room Mystery mystery" [ sic ] in The Guardian newspaper in 2007; this story remains available online. [15] 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.

Fforde Ffiesta

Originating with the Fforde Ffestival in September 2005, [16] the Fforde Ffiesta (cf. Ford Fiesta) is an bi-annual event built around Fforde's books and held in Thursday Next's home town of Swindon over the May bank holiday weekend. [17] People travel from afar to take part in a wide range of events, including a reenactment of the gameshow Name That Fruit, Hamlet Speed Reading competitions, and interactive performances of Richard III .

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>Through the Looking-Glass</i> 1872 novel by Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published on 27 December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humpty Dumpty</span> Nursery rhyme character

Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. The first recorded versions of the rhyme date from late eighteenth-century England and the tune from 1870 in James William Elliott's National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs. Its origins are obscure, and several theories have been advanced to suggest original meanings.

<i>The Eyre Affair</i> 2001 novel by Jasper Fforde

The Eyre Affair is the debut novel by English author Jasper Fforde, published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2001. It takes place in an alternative 1985, where literary detective Thursday Next pursues a master criminal through the world of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. Fforde had received 76 rejections for earlier works before being accepted by a publisher. Critical reception of this novel was generally positive, remarking on its originality.

<i>Lost in a Good Book</i> 2002 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

Lost in a Good Book is an alternate history fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It won the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association 2004 Dilys Award. It is the second in the Thursday Next series.

Shades of gray or shades of grey refers to variations of the color gray.

<i>The Well of Lost Plots</i> 2003 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

The Well of Lost Plots is a novel by Jasper Fforde, published in 2003. It is the third book in the Thursday Next series, after The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book.

Thursday Next is the protagonist in a series of comic fantasy, alternate history mystery novels by the British author Jasper Fforde. She was introduced for the first time in Fforde's first published novel, The Eyre Affair, released on 19 July 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton. As of 2012, the series comprises seven books, in two series. The first series is made up of the novels The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten. The second series is so far made up of First Among Sequels, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing and The Woman Who Died a Lot. As of November 2023, the next novel, Dark Reading Matter, is planned for 2025.

<i>Something Rotten</i> (Fforde novel) 2004 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

Something Rotten is the fourth book in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. It continues the story some two years after the point where The Well of Lost Plots leaves off.

The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde currently consists of the novels 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.

<i>The Big Over Easy</i> 2005 novel written by Jasper Fforde

The Big Over Easy is a 2005 novel written by Jasper Fforde. It features Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his assistant, Sergeant Mary Mary.

Temperance Daessee Brennan is a fictional character created by author Kathy Reichs, and is the hero of her crime novel series. She was introduced in Reichs' first novel, Déjà Dead, which was published in 1997. All the novels are written in the first person, from Brennan's viewpoint. Like her creator, Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. In a number of novels it is indicated that Brennan's background lies in physical anthropology, rather than medicine, and throughout the novels she stresses the importance of correct crime scene process.

<i>The Fourth Bear</i> 2006 novel by Jasper Fforde

The Fourth Bear is a mystery/fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde published in July 2006. It is Jasper Fforde's sixth novel, and the second in the Nursery Crimes series. It continues the story of Detective Inspector Jack Spratt from The Big Over Easy.

<i>First Among Sequels</i> 2007 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

First Among Sequels is an alternate history, comic fantasy novel by the British author Jasper Fforde. It is the fifth Thursday Next novel, first published on 5 July 2007 in the United Kingdom, and on 24 July 2007 in the United States. The novel follows the continuing adventures of Thursday Next in her fictional version of Swindon and in the BookWorld, and is the first of a new four-part Nextian series.

John Reginald "Jack" Spratt, Detective Inspector, Nursery Crime Division, Oxford and Berkshire Constabulary, Officer Number 8216. Jack Spratt is the protagonist in a series of alternate history science fiction fantasy novels by Jasper Fforde. He was named after the character from the English nursery rhyme. As revealed in The Big Over Easy, for example, he hates eating fat, and was once married to a woman who ate nothing else.

SpecOps is a fictional overarching British governmental force in Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series of novels. It was established in 1928 to handle policing duties "too unusual or too specialized" to be handled by the regular police. The force and divisions are similar in name to the real world Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police Service. When introduced in The Eyre Affair, the divisions are described as "Below the Eight, Above the Law".

<i>One of Our Thursdays is Missing</i> 2011 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

One of our Thursdays is Missing is the sixth Thursday Next book, by the British author Jasper Fforde. It was published in February 2011 in the United Kingdom and was published in March in the United States. The title is a reference to the 1942 war film One of Our Aircraft Is Missing.

<i>Humpty Dumpty in Oakland</i> 1986 novel authored by Philip K. Dick

Humpty Dumpty in Oakland is a realist, non-science fiction novel authored by Philip K. Dick. Originally completed in 1960, but rejected by prior publishers, this work was posthumously published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom in 1986. An American edition was published by Tor Books in 2007.

<i>Shades of Grey</i> 2009 novel by Jasper Fforde

Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron is a dystopian novel, the first in the Shades of Grey series by novelist Jasper Fforde. The story takes place in Chromatacia, an alternative version of the United Kingdom wherein social class is determined by one's ability to perceive colour.

<i>The Last Dragonslayer</i> 2010 fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

The Last Dragonslayer is a young adult fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde. It is set in an alternative world in which magic is real, but has become weakened and is also being replaced by modern technology. The setting is almost like modern Britain, except that it is split into a number of small counties. Those counties reference modern-day geography.

<i>The Woman Who Died a Lot</i> 2012 comic fantasy novel by Jasper Fforde

The Woman Who Died A Lot is the seventh Thursday Next book, by the British author Jasper Fforde. It was published in July 2012; set in an alternative world where love of novels and plays is at the heart of modern society, it takes place in a fictional version of Swindon.

References

  1. "UPI Almanac for Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020". United Press International . 11 January 2020. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020. …author Jasper Fforde in 1961 (age 59)
  2. Corbett, Sue (11 October 2012). "Q & A with Jasper Fforde". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  3. "Ten Things You Never Knew About Jasper". Jasper Fforde official website. Retrieved 16 June 2010.
  4. Jasper Fforde at IMDb
  5. John Sutherland (26 July 2003). "If it's Thursday it must be the valley of death". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
  6. John Ezard (31 May 2004). "Lost Plots gains a prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
  7. Thames Reach Housing Development or the Nextian Neighbourhood, JasperFforde.com, retrieved 1 December 2017
  8. Peter Guttridge (19 June 2005). "Back off or Humpty Dumpty gets it". The Observer. Retrieved 22 November 2007.
  9. Fforde, Jasper (23 January 2024). "Red Side Story Index page". jasperfforde.com. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  10. "The Last Dragonslayer". Jasper Fforde.com. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  11. "The Last Dragonslayer (2016 TV Movie)". IMDb. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  12. "Dragonslayer page" . Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  13. "Next Book". Jasper FForde. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  14. Jasper Fforde's website. "The Big Issue with short Story by Jasper Fforde". Archived from the original on 28 April 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  15. Fforde, Jasper (24 December 2007). "The Locked Room Mystery mystery". the Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2022.
  16. "A Brief History of the Fforde Ffiesta". Fforde Fiesta. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  17. "Swindon is centre-stage once again in author's new book". BBC - Wiltshire. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  18. Fforde, Jasper (9 March 2021). The Great Troll War. ISBN   9781444799958 . Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  19. Early Riser. 25 April 2019. ISBN   9781444763706.
  20. The Constant Rabbit. 2 January 2020. ISBN   9781444763713.