The Fforde Ffiesta 1985 takes place at The De Vere Shaw Ridge Hotel in Swindon on May 28th - 30th 2010.
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The Fforde Ffiesta is an unconventional convention based around the comic-fantasy novels of celebrated author Jasper Fforde which takes place in the perhaps unexpected surroundings of Swindon, Wiltshire, "where anything can happen and often does". The event is unconventional both in the way that it’s run – being set in an entirely different era each year that it takes place, for example – and unusual in that the author himself, far from being a distant celebrity seen briefly if at all, is very much at the heart of everything which happens.
Wildly imaginative, tightly plotted pun-filled bundles of literary allusions, satire, criticism and wit, Jasper Fforde’s novels have quickly gained a rabid following amongst book lovers. Fforde has had five books featuring the fictional detective Thursday Next published by Hodder & Stoughton since July, 2001, all of them being based in Swindon: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten and First Amongst Sequels. The Sixth book in the Thursday Next series will be out in July 2010 and is tentatively titled One of Our Thursdays is Missing. Additional books by Fforde include two Nursery Crime novels, The Big Over Easy (published in 2005) and The Fourth Bear (2006), with the third book in the trilogy The Last Great Tortoise Race yet to be published. All of these novels are based in nearby Reading, Berkshire.
With the Fforde Ffiesta taking place a short time later to coincide with the release, January 2010 sees the publication of Shades of Grey, the first of an exciting new three part series of books from Jasper Fforde about a world where social order and destiny are dictated by the colours that you can see.
Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the colour spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own colour - but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey. Night-time is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a public-school like regime of bizarre rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.
Nobody is about to be expelled from the Fforde Ffiesta however! Events are personally selected by Jasper Fforde himself, and are intended to be as much fun as possible, with something for all ages and everyone from the mildly curious to the wildly enthusiastic catered for.
Activities for the 2010 Ffiesta, which is set in the year 1985, include
- Fun Competitions and quiz events based on Jasper Fforde novels
- Stalls, merchandise and games (many with a 1985 theme)
- Guided vintage bus tour of the key places around Swindon mentioned in the Thursday Next books (with commentary by Jasper Fforde himself)
- Audience Participation Performance of Hamlet (Prince of Zombies)
- Character fancy-dress party
- Murder Mystery Gala Dinner (with a story written especially for the Ffiesta by Jasper Fforde)
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