Jasper Fforde

I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde.  It started when he was being interviewed on Radio 4 just after he published The Eyre Affair.  The book sounded so intriguing that I went out and bought it the next day.  It was the first to star the literary detective Thursday Next. 

The Thursday Next books are set in an alternative version of the present day.  Almost the same but not.  The Crimean war has never finished, dodo’s and Neanderthals have been recreated using DNA kits.  Oh yes, and fictional characters turn out to be alive.  Fforde drops in lots of literary allusions, which can be fun to spot, and there is a lot of comedy.  I particularly like some of Thursday’s mad uncle’s inventions (translating carbon paper, etc).

Not all of his books feature Thursday.  There are also some set in a world where nursery rhyme characters intrude into real life.  These feature detective Jack Spratt with his assistant Mary Mary.

If you liked the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if you like classic fiction, you will like Jasper Fforde.