The fourth and, in this madcap series starring the wonderful Thursday Next, an agent with her work cut out trying to save our fictional, but very real, heroes. To try and explain these books is impossible, they are seriously original. If you are not a fan I suggest you start at the beginning with The Eyre Affair; it is wacky, wonderful, inventive stuff with folk nipping in and out of books in an alternative world very close to ours. All I would really like to say is, you have got to read them to believe them.
Comparison: Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Andy Secombe.
Similar this month: None, but try Tom Sharpe for the humour or Anthony Horowitz for madcap adventure.

Win a luxury craft weekend break on Dartmoor

Dartmoor.co.uk has teamed up with Lovereading to offer one lucky winner the chance to win a prize package of accommodation for 2 at Lurcombe luxury apartments during the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey on June 7–9th, including day tickets to attend the festival itself plus Dinner for two (including a bottle of wine) in one of our leading gastro pubs the Rock Inn and a delicious lunch for two at Home Farm Café set in the scenic grounds of the National Trust Estate at Parke in Bovey Tracey.

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Synopsis

Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, returns to her native Swindon accompanied by a child of two, a pair of dodos and Hamlet, who is on a fact-finding mission in the real world. Thursday has been despatched to capture escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine but even so, now seems as good a time as any to retrieve her husband Landen from his state of eradication at the hands of the Chronoguard. It’s not going to be easy. Thursday’s former colleagues at the department of Literary Detectives want her to investigate a spate of cloned Shakespeares, the Goliath Corporation are planning to switch to a new Faith based corporate management system and the Neanderthals feel she might be the Chosen One who will lead them to genetic self-determination. With help from Hamlet, her uncle and time-travelling father, Thursday faces the toughest adventure of her career. Where is the missing President-for-life George Formby? Why is it imperative for the Swindon Mallets to win the World Croquet League final? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare?

Reviews

About the Author

Jasper Fforde traded a varied career in the film industry for staring out of the window and sucking the end of a pencil. He lives and works in Wales and has a passion for aviation. Fellow novelist KERRY REICHS on JASPER FFORDE The Thursday Next and Nursery Crime series are a quirky treat for any bibliophile.  Fforde draws readers into hilarious and surreal alternative universes, such as a 1985 Britain where dodos are a common pet and the Goliath Corporation controls the world.  Favorite fictional characters have active lives behind their pages, and literary factionalism is more influential than politics.  Full of clever entertainment and sly references, The Eyre Affair is a tour de force of the small but highly entertaining science fiction literary detective thriller.  I view it as one of my greatest accomplishments that I was referenced as an “Out World” writer in First Among Sequels. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation