As always, Jasper will be attending the Ffiesta in person and getting stuck in with all things silly, just like the rest of us; what a good sort of chap he is!
Read on to find out more about the man behind the Allegro...
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Jasper Fforde worked in the film industry for 13 years where his varied career included the role of "focus puller" on films such as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. He had been writing purely for his own amusement for several years, but always harboured a dream of trading in his film career to become a full time writer.
After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces a remarkable heroine, a literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plotlines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.
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The publication of The Eyre Affair started a 'book phenomenon', in which readers were catapulted in and out of truth and imagination. The novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. The number of reprints have now reached double figures, and first editions are traded on ebay for hundreds of pounds. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.
His series starring Thursday Next comprises of: The Eyre Affair (2001); Lost in a Good Book (2002); The Well of Lost Plots (2003); Something Rotten (2004); and First Among Sequels (2007).
A further series referred to as his 'Nursery Crimes' series, comprises of: The Big Over Easy (2005); and The Fourth Bear (2006), focussing on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
Excerpt from review by Garan Holcombe of contemporarywriters.com...
"...There is an infectious vivacity and joy to his writing, which is perhaps one of the secrets of his appeal. His success might also be attributed to his refusal to establish a border between himself and his readers. His website is not only an enormous store of obscure bits and pieces concerning the minutiae of his universe, but also contains games, competitions and a lively forum. It all serves to push the idea that there is some corner of the universe that is forever Ffordian...."
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