15/1/2010 - Fforde focus at Carlisle library event : Cumbria County Council

Carlisle library has attracted one of the country's most popular up and coming comic authors to meet fans and do a reading next week.

Jasper Fforde, creator of the literary detective Thursday Next, will be showcasing his new novel Shades of Grey at Carlisle library at 3pm on Saturday 23rd January.

Part satire, part romance, part thriller, the new book is the start of the Chromatacia literary series, where the world is black and white and colour is a commodity where certain people can only see certain colours, according to their status and the hand that life's dealt them - something Jasper calls the Colourtocracy.

Jasper's appearance, like his work, is sure to be peppered with inventive wordplay and puns.

Tickets cost £2 (including refreshments) and are available from Carlisle Library (11 Globe Lane, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 8NX. Tel: 01228 227310).

Jasper FForde worked in the film industry for 19 years where his varied career included the role of "focus puller" on films such as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. He had been writing purely for his own amusement for several years but always harboured a dream of trading in his film career to become a full time writer.

After receiving 76 rejection letters from various publishers, Jasper’s first novel The Eyre Affair was published in 2001. It starred a literary detective called Thursday Next and became an international bestseller with a following of dedicated fans. The Thursday Next series –currently five books –are all set in Swindon. The much-maligned town has embraced its literary son, making Jasper Mayor for the Day, naming a series of new roads after characters from his books and regularly hosting the Jasper Fforde Festival.

Progressing along the M4 corridor (to Reading), Jasper then wrote a bestselling Nursery Crime series. The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear set out to answer the most mystifying questions in criminal history: Who killed Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks?

Jasper has a huge web following with the site www.jasperfforde.com (external link) which is crammed full of information about the parallel universes he has created.

Jasper lives and writes in Wales and has a passion for aviation.

To arrange a preview interview, contact Emma Knight at Hodder Stoughton on 0207 8736175