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Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde at a book signing in New York July 2007
Born 11 January 1961 (1961-01-11) (age 47)
London, England
Occupation novelist
Genres Alternate history, Comic fantasy
Official website

Jasper Fforde (born in London on 11 January 1961) is an English 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 another series, the Nursery Crime Stories series.

Contents

Family

Fforde was born on 11 January, 1961. His father was John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England (whose signature used to appear on sterling banknotes). 1 He is the cousin of the author Katie Fforde.

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 Quills, GoldenEye, and Entrapment. 2

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, and First Among Sequels. The Eyre Affair had received 76 publisher rejections before its eventual acceptance for publication.3 Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots.4

The Big Over Easy (2005), which shares a similar setting with 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?5, 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 wordplay, 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.

In 2006 Jasper Fforde said:

"The Thursday Next series has four books, so the next book I'm going to be writing is five, so we're going to go back to her for a book and after that I don't know, I might experiment with a new series or two. It's an exciting time because I don't know what's going to come out in '09. I am going to have a book for '09 but I don't know what it's about, and that's very exciting because where is it, right now? It's going to be there in two years' time but it's not here now. I pledged a book a year for 10 years to try and get established and that finishes in four years and I said to myself that I could have a year off then. So I'm looking forward to that."6

Fforde recently stated that there will be "No new Fforde book for 2008"7, and publication of the first novel in his new "Shades of Grey" series is now planned for July 2009, having been originally announced by publishers as available in summer 20088. According to the (less recent) First Among Sequels Special Features section on Fforde's website, the sixth Thursday Next novel, entitled One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, is also scheduled to be published in 20099.

Fforde also plans a third Nursery Crime novel, The Last Great Tortoise Race:

"The Last Great Tortoise Race will be the third and final installment of the NCD series. I have no idea when it will be written, or published."10

Other Information

Fforde has an interest in aviation, and owns and flies a DH 82 Tiger Moth, (referred to indirectly in the books, where a Pet Tasmanian Tiger is called DH82).

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ "Jasper Fforde Fan club FfAQs". Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
  2. ^ Jasper Fforde at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ John Sutherland (26 July 2003). "If it's Thursday it must be the valley of death", The Guardian. Retrieved on 22 November 2007. 
  4. ^ John Ezard (31 May 2004). "Lost Plots gains a prize", The Guardian. Retrieved on 22 November 2007. 
  5. ^ Peter Guttridge (19 June 2005). "Back off or Humpty Dumpty gets it", The Observer. Retrieved on 22 November 2007. 
  6. ^ Gary Kemble (2006-09-16). "Q & A: Jasper Fforde". Articulate. ABC News. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  7. ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : What's New?" (2008-01-25). Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  8. ^ "Adult Hardcover May - August 2008 Frontlist". Penguin Group (US). Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  9. ^ "'First Among Sequels' Special Features Section" (2007-04-07). Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  10. ^ "Jasper Fforde.com : Frequently Asked Questions".

External links

v • d • e
Novels by Jasper Fforde
Thursday Next series
Nursery Crimes series


Persondata
NAME Fforde, Jasper
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION English novelist
DATE OF BIRTH 11 January 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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