Meet the Author: Jasper Fforde

Photo credit: Mari Fforde

30 September 2025

Jasper Fforde spent twenty years in the film business before debuting on the New York Times Bestseller list with The Eyre Affair in 2001. His 18th novel, Dark Reading Matter, will be published in the UK/USA in 2026.

Fforde’s writing is an eclectic mix of genres, which might be described as a joyful blend of Comedy-SF-thriller-Crime-Satire. He freely admits that he is fascinated not just by books themselves, but by the way we read and what we read, and his reinvigoration of tired genres have won him many enthusiastic supporters across the world.

Jasper is appearing at this year’s Southwold Literary Festival on 8 November to talk about his upcoming novel, Dark Reading Matter. Tickets are available to book online or in-person at Southwold Library.

You can find Jasper’s books on the Catálogo das Bibliotecas Comunitárias de Suffolk.

What was your first introduction to books and reading? Were you surrounded by books as a child or did you visit a library?

My English teachers when I was five were Mrs Read and Mrs Wright – yes, really. Mrs Read was lovely – all soft and pink and wrinkled and kindly and smelled of lavender, while Mrs Wright was tall and cadaverous and it was rumoured she was fired from her last school for eating a child. Once Mrs Read had taught me to read, I suddenly realised that with this awesome power I could read a book of my own choosing – so went and found Alice in Wonderland on my parents shelves and read that from cover to cover .. twice. I still have the same book on my shelf.

What was your journey to publication and how did you cope with the constant rejections in your early days?

I think it’s useful to not regard people unwilling to publish your Magnum Opus as ‘rejection’. Early writers (me included) tend to have a mildly overinflated sense of our own talent so it’s a little bit of a shocker that other people may not view our baby with quite the same sense of lovelorn dreaminess. I think it’s probably fair to say that a rejection might actually mean your book is ‘currently not of sufficient quality to merit publication’ and that’s a good base to work from. Make it better, make it brilliant, keep on writing. Most authors are published on their sixth book (I was) and it takes time to hone those skills..

Qual é sua rotina de escrita?

It’s pretty much a losing battle against distractions. Once I’ve cleared the decks of emails and other daily minutiae then it’s a lot easier, and if you have to manage your life to limit distractions, then that helps too. It’s tempting to be waylaid by things that need your attention – eBay is not going to buy itself, after all – so resistance to distraction is key. Wait, is that a squirrel in the garden?

Você pode nos contar um pouco sobre seu último livro? Red Side Story?

Red Side Story is set in a post-apocalyptic world where society is run on an aggressive set of rules within a strict hierarchy based around visual colour. The story follows on from Shades of Grey and involves our two protagonists who are attempting to navigate an increasingly tense set of circumstances where options for survival diminish at every turn.

There was a long gap between Shades of Grey e Red Side Story. Do you have the story arc for the final book in the trilogy mapped out in your mind now?

I write all of my books ‘on the fly’. When I am writing a series I sometimes have a vague idea where things are going, but not much. Because of this I have developed my ‘no plan plan’ where I plan for having no plan by dropping in small and intriguing details that I can build upon in later books. How I do that and in what context is really most of the fun. The final instalment to my Last Dragonslayer series was concluded by reading the three books and then work something that fitted. It’s a bit like doing a jigsaw first, then choosing the picture on the box.

I’d be fascinated to hear about your influences. You create worlds quite unlike anyone else. How do you decide what works and what doesn’t?

I’ve always been interested in ‘stuff’, the nebulous trappings of our often eclectic life experiences. Since I have no feedback until a year after I’ve finished the book, I have to figure out what works and what doesn’t on my own – if an idea amuses me, I generally leave it in, but so long as it makes sense within the logical narrative of the book. yet necessary

You are appearing at the Southwold Literary Festival on Saturday 8 November. What can the readers of Southwold expect?

If you’ve read my books and enjoy my books – prepare for more of the same, as I often pepper my talks with the quirky and the unusual. If you have a burning question over some aspect of my books, then bring that too – I do like Q and As, the more obscure the better..

O que vem a seguir para você?

I’m currently finishing Dark Reading Matter, the 8th and final instalment of the Thursday Next series.

As a library service we’re always looking for our next great read. One book you would recommend to everyone?

I have a deep admiration for True Grit by Charles Portis. What a book. Set in 1874 it tells of 14 year old Mattie Ross who sets herself up with grizzled US Marshall Rooster Cogburn in order to go after the man who killed her father.

Você pode nos contar uma coisa sobre você que seus leitores não saberiam?

I once made a cup of coffee for Angela Lansbury.