Imagine that you’re back in 1985, but if you remember 1985, this is not that one. In this 1985, the Crimean War between England and Russia is a century old and still happening, cloning technology has progressed to the point where you can buy a kit and clone your own pet dodo at home (and Neanderthals are around again and being discriminated against), and in England, where you live, literature is so important that there are gang wars over questions like “who really authored Shakespeare’s plays?”
That’s the world of Thursday Next, who is a literary detective in a series of novels written by Jasper Fforde, who turns 62 today. In an interesting twist, his father, grandfather, and great grandfather have all been sufficiently notable to have their own pages in Wikipedia (the real Wikipedia, not the one in Ms. Next’s world).
Fforde’s novels are…well, they’re certainly novel, and often hilarious. He published the first one, The Eyre Affair, in 2001, and so far has added six more. He has another series that takes place in the same alternate universe, that’s a sendup of nursery rhymes. Jack Spratt is a Detective Inspector, his assistant is Mary Mary (who’s reportedly somewhat contrary), and they’re investigating a crime; who pushed Mr. Dumpty off the wall he was sitting on? Hey, Fforde novels require a LOT of willing suspension of disbelief.
Fforde’s work has spilled over into the real world, too. The fictional Thursday Next lives in the town of Swindon, which is also a real place — and in the real version, there’s a real-life Fforde Ffiesta every September featuring events from the fictional world, including Hamlet speed-reading competitions and the game show Name That Fruit. Fforde also owns (or owned) a car with a weird paint job that matches the one driven by Thursday Next, and there are automotive tie-ins to the Ffiesta as well (and of course there is a car called the Ford Fiesta). There’s even a housing development in Swindon with several streets named after characters in Fforde’s books.
You can find out more at Fford’s website, which is also…well, unique.
