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Jasper Fforde


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:exc: It's Thursday Day! The next Thursday Next book is out so I'll no longer be missing "One of Our Thursdays is Missing"

 

:giggle: Good time Chesil :)

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Not sure I should really be quite so excited over the publication of a book :lol: Especially as I'm still re-reading the first five (halfway through book four) and won't be able to start it until at least tomorrow I would have thought - but at least I'll have it in my hands and on my Kindle - yes, I'll be buying both formats :rolleyes: one to keep my lovely collections going, and the other to actually read! Glad to see the hardback version is keeping with the same cover design style, and not changing like the paperback version of First Among Sequels did (I was lucky enough to get a hardback copy of First Among Sequels at a signing, so all mine match the style, even if that last two will be hardback and the rest paperback). Don't mind too much though, as long as I can read them! I'm rambling, a sure sign I'm TOO EXCITED!!!!!! :exc:

Edited by chesilbeach
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I can hardly contain my excitement :jump: Because it's my birthday at the end of this week, Alan took me to Hay on Wye for a few days of absolutely blissful book buying. We got back yesterday and I knew he'd booked tickets for me to see an author give a talk about their latest book last night .. he wouldn't tell me who it was and asked me not to google it .. the only info he gave me was that it was a man and I liked his books. It could have been anyone, tbh I was a bit worried but imagine my delight in finding myself in an old church in Abingdon with the one and only JASPER FFORDE .. I was so excited I nearly burst. He was lovely and the talk was very funny. I bought a copy of his latest .. naturally ... and he signed it for me .. with my name in and everything :yahoo: We had a little chat (mostly with me gushing and probably embarrasing the life out of him) and him telling me a few bits and pieces about the writing of 'Something Rotten' which I told him was my favourite so far (I haven't read 'First Among Sequels' yet.) I am still on cloud nine. I took a photo of him with my book ... I'll try and upload it.

They were also publicising an event called 'Fforde Fiesta' .. which takes place in May I think and is a celebration of his books (the event is best described as random) .. it get's booked up pretty quickly apparently.

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Wow, you're so lucky, Poppyshake! I think I've told you before that your husband seems awesome, but this just takes it to a whole other level! Does he have a twin brother by any chance? :wink:

 

It was exciting for me just to read about your story about meeting him (wow, he's really good looking :blush: ). I hope he comes to Australia one day. I wouldn't have a clue what to say to him though. I'd probably grin like an idiot and just say 'hello' and 'thank you'. :rolleyes:

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That is truly fantastic!!!!!! I am so thrilled / jealous / delighted for you. :lol:

 

What a wonderful trip, and a fabulous surprise. Please tell Alan I am nominating him for the BCF Gorgeous Surpriser 2011! :wink:

 

I was just so thrilled, it had been quite a long day as we didn't get back from Wales until mid afternoon and then to drive over to Abingdon which is about an hour away, I was just hoping that it would be worthwhile and of course as soon as I knew it was Jasper I totally perked up and didn't feel tired at all. He's doing a tour (I think he said this was his second night) all over the country so perhaps he may come to a town near you Chrissy .. if he does, grab the opportunity with both hands .. he's so entertaining.

Wow, you're so lucky, Poppyshake! I think I've told you before that your husband seems awesome, but this just takes it to a whole other level! Does he have a twin brother by any chance? :wink:

 

It was exciting for me just to read about your story about meeting him (wow, he's really good looking :blush: ). I hope he comes to Australia one day. I wouldn't have a clue what to say to him though. I'd probably grin like an idiot and just say 'hello' and 'thank you'. :rolleyes:

He has got a brother Kylie, in fact he has a couple of them but I couldn't .. hand on heart .. recommend them. I definitely got the best of the bunch :) When I tell you that not only did he .. over the course of three days ... spend all his time in bookshops with me but he also took my lists and scoured the shelves for books I wanted etc and found lots of them for me, then you'll know how lucky I am. I managed to buy over fifty books (mostly second hand) and he was as excited as I was whenever we discovered one that I'd been searching for.

 

Jasper is lovely, I hope he comes to Australia (if I'd have known I was going I would have asked him that.) I'm sure I said some pretty stupid things, I'm only surprised that I didn't fall down at his feet. I could have listened to him forever, he was just so interesting. He said the sequel to 'Shades of Grey' will not be out until the year after next which I felt a bit disappointed about because I was hoping for it sooner but I have got to read 'First Among Sequels' then 'One of Our Thursday's Is Missing' and 'The Last Dragonslayer' so lot's of Jasper still to enjoy. He said that the plot twist involving Granny Next was the only plot development (for the whole series) that he had planned from the beginning and that he writes approx 2,500 words per day which frankly wears me out thinking about it. His family were Bronte readers rather than Austen readers and as such he doesn't much care for Jane's fiction much but he positively loathes 'Wuthering Heights' and that's why he was glad to get his own back on the characters in 'The Well of Lost Plots' ... on the other hand he reveres 'Jane Eyre' and says he was unable to write extensive dialogue for her because she is just so iconic.

 

I haven't read anything about the new book and Jasper wasn't giving much away except that it contains two Thursday's .. the actual one and the written one (from all the previous books) ... just that snippet alone makes me want to read it NOW.

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OMG, poppyshake, what an amazing surprise!!! Honestly, I got goosepumps when I was reading your posts, I can only imagine how totally thrilled you were! Your hubby is awesome, the look on your face and your reaction must've been priceless :D And to go with you to shop for books, for him to look at all your lists and help you make some great finds, he's a keeper! :wink: Awwww how blissful, I'm so happy for you!!!!!! :smile2:

 

And sorry for the off-topicing you Fforde fans, but poppyshake, when you have the time, do tell us which books you bought during your book shopping spree! I'd love to know. Perhaps I'll see you in your reading blog for it ;)

Edited by frankie
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Sounds like you had a great time, poppyshake. I'm disappointed I won't be able to make any of his tour this year, but I still have my signed copy of First Among Sequels to remind me of meeting him a few years ago. You might be interested to know he's blogging about his tour this year, so you can find out what he had to say about your Abingdon evening here http://www.jasperfforde.com/more/2011tourblog.html :smile2:

 

I'm finishing my re-read of First Among Sequels today, and then I'll finally be able to make a start on One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing - can't wait :exc:

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OMG, poppyshake, what an amazing surprise!!! Honestly, I got goosepumps when I was reading your posts, I can only imagine how totally thrilled you were! Your hubby is awesome, the look on your face and your reaction must've been priceless :D And to go with you to shop for books, for him to look at all your lists and help you make some great finds, he's a keeper! :wink: Awwww how blissful, I'm so happy for you!!!!!! :smile2:

:thanx: Frankie ... Yes, he's a star ... most of the time :wink:

 

And sorry for the off-topicing you Fforde fans, but poppyshake, when you have the time, do tell us which books you bought during your book shopping spree! I'd love to know. Perhaps I'll see you in your reading blog for it ;)

 

I've put them on my reading blog, Frankie .. I thought I'd been good and stuck to my lists but now I've typed them up I see I did a bit too much freestyling!:lol:

 

Sounds like you had a great time, poppyshake. I'm disappointed I won't be able to make any of his tour this year, but I still have my signed copy of First Among Sequels to remind me of meeting him a few years ago. You might be interested to know he's blogging about his tour this year, so you can find out what he had to say about your Abingdon evening here http://www.jasperffo...11tourblog.html :smile2:

 

I'm finishing my re-read of First Among Sequels today, and then I'll finally be able to make a start on One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing - can't wait :exc:

 

:thankyousigna2: Chesil for the link, he's right it was a dangerous outbreak of roadworks .. they more or less appeared about five mins before the talk started and at various times during the evening it sounded as if the church was going to be bulldozed .. thank goodness for microphones.

The question and answer session was interesting .. I didn't ask anything until he was signing my book .. too nervous but a lot of interesting questions were asked like 'are there any books/characters that you wouldn't satirize?' and Jasper said yes .. Scout and Jem in 'To Kill A Mockingbird' .. he just thinks the book and those two characters in particular are sacred.

 

I'm so envious that you're almost up to speed with the series .. how exciting!

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We had a little chat (mostly with me gushing and probably embarrasing the life out of him)
It was exciting for me just to read about your story about meeting him (wow, he's really good looking). I hope he comes to Australia one day. I wouldn't have a clue what to say to him though. I'd probably grin like an idiot and just say 'hello' and 'thank you'.
sure I said some pretty stupid things, I'm only surprised that I didn't fall down at his feet. I could have listened to him forever, he was just so interesting.

Isn't he just gorgeous?! I thought he looked like a redhead version of Hugh Laurie, which is a yummy association and just fine my me. Add to that how much I respect him as a fellow writer and you'll get why I still can't believe the things I said to him last year before running off with burning cheeks :blush: must be on my very best behaviour this year or I might be blogged about as 'this crazy girl from the Midlands against whom I'm thinking of taking a restraining order'...!

 

They were also publicising an event called 'Fforde Fiesta' .. which takes place in May I think and is a celebration of his books (the event is best described as random) .. it get's booked up pretty quickly apparently.

I want to go to this so badly. Anyone willing to go halvsies on a minor bank robbery?

 

What a wonderful trip, and a fabulous surprise. Please tell Alan I am nominating him for the BCF Gorgeous Surpriser 2011!
Nomination seconded!

 

I've put them on my reading blog, Frankie .. I thought I'd been good and stuck to my lists but now I've typed them up I see I did a bit too much freestyling!
No such thing as too much freestyling *toddles off to peek at your pretty pictures & lists*!
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  • 2 weeks later...

So, me and my idol Jasper were reunited at last on Monday...!

 

The talk was fantastic, I don't know the last time I've laughed this consistently for over an hour straight. He's priceless and because he is, this time I made myself ask a question even though I was quaking with ill-repressed admiration. It was a question very close too my hear too, I.e. given that he has included a fantasy-ish map in the new book, how did he feel towards being labelled as a fantasy author and does the stigma associated to the genre annoy him? His answer was very wise and one which I should probably heed, I.e. that he writes for fun and is therefore supremely unconcerned with labels of any kind.

 

*goes away and thinks about this really hard*

*returns to continue the story*

 

When he signed my copies of TN6 and The Last Dragonslayer, I told him he'd made me cringe at myself (he'd gone on a tangent about literature PhD students earlier, and I must admit he had the idiosyncracies of my kind down to a T) and daftly reminded him - he'd forgotten - about my fleeing from him at the launch of SoG. Mercifully, he then recognised me as the one who'd been sent books with her name spelt wrong and needed them replaced, so I reckon that let me off the hook of embarrassment a little. Of course, I couldn't leave until I embarrassed myself again, so after I'd taken a picture* with him I actually stuck around to show him something cool I'd noticed, namely that having been apart from my camera for a year, the last picture on it was the one I'd taken with him at the SoG launch. I think he may have thought of me as a stalker by this point, but he was charming about it nonetheless and asked me whether that was my special camera just for taking pictures of him. Bless his cotton socks, I told him that it was. It was all over sooner than I wanted it to, and on a bizzarre bantery note too: he asked me what I thought of Dragonslayer, I told him I loved it enough to want to have kids just so I could read it to them, and he said he wouldn't pay for the offspring in question :D!

 

* in case you're wondering, my custom-made hoodie reads "Jurisfiction: ever wanted to be in books?" and, at the back, "Spec-Ops 27: wordage is our business, grammar is our game." In my daftness, I might have forgotten to take my blazer off to show it to Jasper, but nevermind.

 

Also, I think I made a friend :) I like it when I strike up conversations and they fall on like-minded ears. As Jasper himself was saying while promoting the Fforde Fiesta, people in the same room because they love the same books are likely to have even more to talk about. Which kinda reminded me of here :hug:.

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I'm currently reading The Well of Lost Plots, and enjoying it. However, it can be a bit like reading A Clockwork Orange, half the words are made up! I really liked The Eyre Affair, but I'm not sure I enjoyed the sequels as much, because in a sense, you almost know what to expect...and even though the literary references (both subtle and overt) are a delight to come across, I do sometimes feel like I'm being battered over the head with them.

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Excellent story again, Giulia! I really love reading your Jasper encounters. :) It sounds like you're getting less nervous each time you meet him. Is that correct? He sounds like such a lovely, funny guy; I hope he comes to Australia one day.

 

And how awesome that you were wearing a custom-make Jurisfiction hoodie. I love it!

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The Thursday Next series; 'The Eyre Affair', 'Lost In A Good Book', 'The Well Of Lost Plots', 'Something Rotten', 'First Among Sequels' and 'One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing'.

 

Nursery Crimes Division; 'The Big Over Easy' & 'The Fourth Bear'.

 

Young Adult; 'The Last Dragonslayer'

 

Hope that helps. :)

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Also, 'Shades of Grey' which if I remember rightly, is the first of another series.

 

Personally, I'd recommend starting with 'The Eyre Affair' because it's a great introduction to his style of writing and sense of humour, and gets you used to the sort of world you'll encounter when you read his books.

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These Jasper stories make me feel warm and fuzzy as though hearing that he is a good and funny man means something is clearly RIGHT in the universe *big satisfied sigh*
Awwww :) pretty thought. I approve of & adhere to it.

 

I'm currently reading The Well of Lost Plots, and enjoying it. However, it can be a bit like reading A Clockwork Orange, half the words are made up! I really liked The Eyre Affair, but I'm not sure I enjoyed the sequels as much, because in a sense, you almost know what to expect... and even though the literary references (both subtle and overt) are a delight to come across, I do sometimes feel like I'm being battered over the head with them.
I find that the 'Clockwork' effect means I can only read Jasper when I'm fully awake, alert and immersed in undistracted silence, otherwise I just get really confounded by the cleverness of it all :rolleyes: That said, I think the series actually improves from TN1, and what a mean feat that wasn't! Personally, I'm all for knowing what to expect if I like what I know I'm expecting, and in Jasper's case it means I'm expecting a a great heroine I truly care about, fantastically unfathomable plots, awesome plays on words and the books that contain them, hilarious writing, snappy dialogue... what's not to like :)?

 

Excellent story again, Giulia! I really love reading your Jasper encounters. It sounds like you're getting less nervous each time you meet him. Is that correct? He sounds like such a lovely, funny guy; I hope he comes to Australia one day. And how awesome that you were wearing a custom-make Jurisfiction hoodie. I love it!
Thank you darling :friends0: I, too, hope for your sake he comes to Australia one day!

 

Incidentally, you grossly overestimate the evolution of my confidence. I was just as terrified as last time, just this time I kept mentally chanting the mantra 'don'tsayanythingdaft,don'trunaway,don'tsayanythingdaft,don'trunaway' :lol: I'm glad I - quite literally - stood my ground even though I did completely fail to keep my cool... my new friend said she would have nabbed me if I'd made to bolt for the door, I wouldn't have wanted for her to have been put to the test like that *ahem*!

 

And indeed, Paula - Jasper Fforde IS the dude.

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I have The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear waiting to be read(one of them is signed but not to me, its just signed) I am determined to read them because after reading 'Shades of Grey', I forgot how much I missed Jasper Fforde very singular sense of humour :)

Edited by Weave
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I had honestly never heard of Jasper Fforde until I kept seeing his name all over the forum. I am proud to say, thanks to a Goodreads swap, I will soon be the owner of a 'very good condition' edition of The Eyre Affair. I will no longer be a Fforde virgin, which, hopefully will lead me to be a Fforde tart. :lol:

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Considering that the Waterstones in Birmingham hosted Jasper Fforde they really are bad for buying his books! It took about a year for them to have Something Rotten in stock, now they don't have First Among Sequels in stock, I want to get to One of Our Thursdays is Missing already!

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