1: The Nursery Rhyme books and the Thursday Next novels are so different from anything else in the market, what makes your mind go in those directions for these stories?

2: How did you get your start as a writer? Do you write full time?

3: Talk to us about the new Thursday Next novel, what is it about? What was the inspiration for this sequel?

4: How do you keep the stories in each of the series fresh and different?

5: A trip to the Jasper Fforde website is a bit like a trip to a three ring circus. What inspires this site and do you do all of the work yourself?

6: What is a typical day in your life like?

7: What do you do to relax?

8: We hear that you have a strange affinity for Volkswagons, what is that about?

9: Tell us a little about what we can expect to see in future books.

10: You have a large and loyal fan base, what would you like them to know about you?

11: What authors do you admire?

12: What would you like to say to your fans?






1: The Nursery Rhyme books and the Thursday Next novels are so different from anything else in the market, what makes your mind go in those directions for these stories?

I think I had 76 rejections before my first book, "the Eyre Affair", was eventually published in 2000. To have persevered despite all the rejections shows that I kept on writing because I enjoyed it. Once my first two books I released into the world were roundly rejected I really thought it was possible - even probable - that I would never be published. But it didn't really matter as I was enjoying the process. In fact, it was a tremendous release - since I was not going to be published it didn't matter what I wrote. Crimean war? No problem! Reengineered dodos? Bring them on! Catching meteorites with pitchers gloves? Go for it! So in a strange sort of way the rejection actually helped. I didn't have to play it safe or have an audience or publisher in mind - I just wrote it for myself. Then, when I was finally picked up they did so because my novels were - how shall we put it? Unusual. The weakness - the oddity of my books - had become the strength. I just don't place any limits upon my imagination and let myself write what others might dismiss before allowing anything onto the page.

2: How did you get your start as a writer? Do you write full time?

I actually began my working life as a teaboy and office 'runner' in Shepperton studios in 1981 on a film called 'Pirates of Penzance'. After that, I gradually worked my way up through the ranks, ending up in the camera department, a focus puller on films such as 'Goldeneye', 'Entrapment', 'The Mask of Zorro' and 'The Saint.' By 2000 I was beginning to make the move to being a cameraman which means taking a very long slide down the ladder; I did about 10 low budget/no budget shorts and one commercial when all of a sudden a hobby which I had begun ten years previously suddenly bore fruit. The hobby? Writing! I had enjoyed this "hobby" for about ten years whilst working in the film industry. I endured the 76 rejections as I mentioned earlier and then in 2000 I found an agent. The one stepping stone I had been missing to enable me to leap from writing as a hobby to being a published author was that someone actually read my book. Up until I found my agent, none of my applications had resulted in my book being read in its entirety. As is usual, I sent precis after precis with a sample chapter and was sent back a resounding 'no' on all occasions. It took a young agent starting up and who was hungry for material for me to be actually read; but once I was read, then things started to move. Since then I have written another four books in the Thursday Next series and two Nursery Crime novels featuring Jack Spratt and Mary Mary. Full time - yes - I write every day for six months of the year, I tour for about two months and write and edit as much as possible in the other four months. It's certainly a full time job.

3: Talk to us about the new Thursday Next novel, what is it about? What was the inspiration for this sequel?

The fifth installment in the Thursday Next series, 'First Among Sequels' will be coming out in the US on July 23rd 2007. It is fourteen years since Thursday Next pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and her son Friday is now sixteen. As previous meetings with the young man might indicate, he should be thinking of entering the Academy of Time in order to fulfil his destiny at the ChronoGuard, but he has decided instead to pursue a career in music - and now leads a teenage rockband called 'Snot'. Exasperation at her son's time-career non-fulfillment is but one of Thursday's problems at present.

Meanwhile, Goliath have perfected their own 22-seater Prose Portal Luxury Coach, and plan on taking literary tourists on a maiden voyage to the works of Jane Austen. 'The future of books is interactivity', claims the upper management at the Council of Genres, 'and regulated book travel is far preferable to an unregulated tourism industry.' Thursday is naturally appalled at the prospect, but her objections fall on deaf ears, and Thursday herself is selected to accompany the 'Austen Rover' as it travels on its maiden voyage into Pride and Prejudice.

Of course, all is not what it seems and Thursday soon realises that Goliath is up to its old tricks again. With the future of the entire Bookworld in jeopardy and a mass erasure threatening the very fabric of fiction itself, Thursday must travel to the very outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to do battle with old foes and new adversaries.

The inspiration - everything and anything, from watching the news to taking my dog for a walk. There is inspiration everywhere.

4: How do you keep the stories in each of the series fresh and different?

Ooh um golly. Not sure really. I like to experiment with new ideas and am always very careful I don't going over the same ground again. It's important - especially in series books - to try and bring something new out of the hat on every outing. Thankfully, since the Nextian Universe is a bizarre place where anything can happen, I can usually dream up someting odd that can be shoehorned into the narrative.

5: A trip to the Jasper Fforde website is a bit like a trip to a three ring circus. What inspires this site and do you do all of the work yourself?

I'm very concious of the unspoken contract between reader and writer - you give me your hard-earned money and in return I agree to. I tend to regard my website as 'after sales service' for readers who only see a new Fforde book every year, and might want some Fforde-based tomfoolery in between. Where the website does help me is that I often use it as an 'R&D' lab for ideas - the 'Hamlet' and 'Pete and Dave's' page both helped me to figure out the context of the ideas and how they fit into Thursday's world. My partner Mari and I do al of the site ourselves. We taught ourselves a bit of coding and it all developed from there. We like to keep it simple and approachable and most importantly, personal. It is vital that this website is written by me and constructed by myself and Mari. There is no middle man and I think that helps it to keep it fresh and readers appreciate the close link between writer and written for.

6: What is a typical day in your life like?

A typical day depends on the time of year. Late September to April would see me in what I call my "scribination" period. It's like a winter hibernation, but involves a lot of writing. I start scribbling at 8am, usually after about an hour of procrastination looking at things I don't need on eBay. I stop at midday for lunch and a walk with the dog. Then I continue writing until about 8pm. May and June are the build up to the launch of the latest book in July and also a chance to start work on the next book so the days are pretty varied. July and August are tour months and so involve lots of travelling and meeting readers, which I always enjoy. And then we are back to the "scribination" stage again.

7: What do you do to relax?

I go flying - soaring above the Welsh hills in a glider is the best form of relaxation possible.

8: We hear that you have a strange affinity for Volkswagons, what is that about?

Volkswagens are just a design icon. I built my own beach buggy when I was nineteen and I have continued to own various different models throughout my life - I've owned a 1956 saloon and once had an aeroplane that was powered by an old VW engine! My sister has a bright green Beetle and although I would love to drive around in a beach buggy again, I have opted for a more sensible VW Polo. But if I saw a beach buggy for sale it would be difficult to walk past.

9: Tell us a little about what we can expect to see in future books.

We'll continue on with the Thursday books as she's great fun to write, but we will intersperse that with other novels unrelated to either the TN or NC series. They will try and follow the same principle of being entertaining absurdist thrillers with overtones of satire. The fun part is that I'm not really sure. It's all out there in the future. They'll be a book from me in 2009 but I have no idea what it is. And that makes me think: 'Where is it now?"

10: You have a large and loyal fan base, what would you like them to know about you?

I have a 'Ten things you didn't know about Jasper' on my website, which I might expand one of these days. Other than that, you really don't have to look very far - there is much of me in the books. Look at how the books hang together and you'll get a very good idea about how my mind works, and what I like or don't like. Just don't think I'm this wild and wacky way out guy. I'm actually very normal in real life - just with odd ideas and a silly sense of humour.

11: What authors do you admire?

The greatest influence has been, and continues to be the 'Alice' books by Lewis Carroll. A benchmark of inspired nonsense that any absurdist writer should try and attain. They were the first books I remember choosing to read of my own volition. (Important, I think; the first fifty or so dowdy reading primers are chosen for us. It is a learning to walk moment when you have the power to read, and, critically, choose to do so) I must have been seven years old at the time and was swept away by Alice's madcap escapades and respectful irreverence of established nursery characters and situations.

Here are ten excellent books that I can read again and again (in no particular order)

1: 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice through the looking glass' (Lewis Carroll) Nonsense of the highest order, yet to be surpassed. Extraordinary invention on many levels. Read it as a child and later as an adult - you'll get different things from it. Special Mention: The Jabberwock wearing spats and a tunic in John Tenniel's excellent illustration.

2:'Three Men in a Boat' (Jerome K Jerome) A book that I still laugh out loud whilst reading. Fresh and joyous self-deprecating humor of lazy Victorian gentleman going for a cruise on the Thames in the late nineteenth century. I challenge anyone to read the 'Taking two cheeses by train' story without smirking. Special Mention: Montmorency the dog, cooking with a spirit stove and trying to open a tin.

3: 'Diary of a Nobody' (Bert and Weedon Grossmith) Again, a book of infinite charm written over a hundred years ago but still relevant to us today. Follow Charles Pooter, a middle class clerk as he attempts social climbing, dealing with his dissolute son Lupin and all the 'fads' of the time, with highly amusing consequences. Special Mention: The Pooter's odd friends, Cumming and Gowing, Parlour games, the bootscraper incident and the Mansion House Ball spelling mistake.

4: Slaughterhouse-5 (Kurt Vonnegut) A bizarre and surreal story that spans time-travel, the bombing of Dresden and conventions of Optometrists with a style, pace and verve that is extraordinary. Special Mention: The Tralfamadorian's centipede view of the life cycle of a human.

5: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) Much has been written about this book and it is all true. One of the finest, if not THE finest books of the twentieth century. Especially notable for the way in which the narrative unfolds as we go from character to character. The section where Milo Minderbinder explains to Yossarian how he can sell eggs cheaper than he bought them and still make a profit is quite simply a delight. Special Mention: The catch itself. It's the best there is.

6: To Kill a Mocking Bird (Harper Lee) Made a great impression on me when I first read it aged twelve and still makes me angry and frustrated after the verdict - you can feel the heat in the courtroom! Special Mention: The truth about Boo Radley.

7: The Little Prince (Antoine De St. Exupery) Allegorical children's book that continues to enthrall and delight. Oddly, St. Exupery wrote and illustrated this on a whim - the rest of his writing is good but does not reach the heights of 'Prince'. Perhaps because he wasn't trying and the door opened to his heart. Special Mention: The rose, the fox and the baobab trees. I never looked at one the same way ever again.

8: Summer Lightning (P.G.Wodehouse) I mention this one book although I dearly love all of Wodehouse's writing. 'Summer Lightning' is probably the most indicative of his work. A story set at Blandings Castle in Shropshire In the twenties, it has all the Wodehouse elements: Forbidden love trysts in the rose garden, idiot sons, fearful aunts, damaging unpublished memoirs, theft, intrigue, pretty dancers and an impostor - there is always at least one at Castle Blandings. Special Mention: Empress Blandings, winner of the Shropshire Fat Pig Competition - Lord Emsworth hopes.

9: Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh). Again, I mention this book but his others are equally as good; 'Scoop' being my next favorite. 'Decline and Fall' has an episodic quality that I enjoy immensely and snaps along with a dry humor to die for. Special Mention: Captain Grimes and Margot Beste-Chetwynde. Comic creations with depth and humor.

10: The Calculus Affair (Herge (George Remi)) I'm a long-time Tintin fan and he remains a big inspiration for story telling. 'The Calculus Affair' is one of the later books and probably the best. By this time Herge's illustrations, characterization and humor was never better. The story about secret inventions and kidnappings by foreign powers just snaps along at a breakneck speed. Tank, Helicopter and car chases - this book is like a movie on paper! Special Mention: The locations drawn in the book are for real. You can visit them.

12: What would you like to say to your fans?

Thank you, thank you, thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou THANK YOU. And I hope you enjoy "First among Sequels"



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