Lost in a Good Book

Jasper Fforde

I’ve been reading Jasper Fforde for the first time for The Manx Litfest Book Club. These books are completely out of the ordinary, so if they’re new to you too, just suspend belief and dive in.

I started with ‘The Eyre Affair’ which immerses you in Jasper Fforde’s fantastical and humorous Book World. It’s 1985, but not as we know it. Characters can travel in and out of books, and a literary detective named Thursday Next finds the ability to follow them.When Jane Eyre is kidnapped, only Thursday can save her. I liked Thursday -  a sassy heroine who takes on sinister villains, and a corrupt organisation.

But her every action has consequences, which continue in the next title in the series, ‘Lost in a Good Book’. This discloses more about Thursday Next’s personal life, and her marriage to the absent Landen Park-Laine. Thursday attempts to bring him back, and needs the help of man-hating Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.

These books are a romp through the fantasic world of Thursday Next - full of clever puns, quasi situations and quirky characters.  I haven’t come across anything quite like this series, which manages to combine famous books with fantasy, humour and a detective story too.

BTW, I was fascinated to find out how Escher's famous picture of reptiles inspired  Thursday Next's car, and this real paint job. Here's a pic from our Escher pop-up book, and here's the car:

  
Visit Jasper Fforde online for everything you ever wanted to know about Book World, and his other books too.