1: On the internet, there are numerous interviews with you. Also, an extensive collection can be found on your own website. Your books are praised, critics are amazed. Do you enjoy this publicity?

2: Thursday Next is a literary agent of a complete different kind. Did you invent Thursday to kind of secure your books of plagiarism or kidnapping of your characters without your knowing?

3: Have you ever made negative experience on this behalf before your books got published?

4: For J. K. Rowling, stolen manuscripts of actual Harry Potter novels have become reality long since. When will this become a job for Thursday Next?

5: How many of Thursday's adventures do you still want to write in the future?

6: Have you read all the books you mention in your own novels? What criteria are important for you in choosing the novels you write about?

7: Being familiar with the film business, who would be your favourite crew - in front of and behind the camera - for an adaptation of one of your books?

8: Lately, in Germany there are many small publishing houses, publishing less known authors or experimental novels by better known authors that usually don't have a chance with the big publishers. Are there similar developments in Wales and the rest of Britain? What's the British literary scene like?

9: If you agree, I would like to talk a little bit about Jasper Fforde not as the author, but the man. You were born in Wales in 1961. Your father died in 2000. What was your relationship like? What did he do for a living? What about your mother? Do you have brothers or sisters?

10: Was there some experience in your childhood paving your further way, especially concerning your job?

11: What novel are you reading at the moment?

12: ou own a pilot's licence. What kind of plane would you very much like to fly and what would be your favourite destination - regardless of any barrier?

13: In which novel would you like to spend your holiday?

14: Once you told an interviewer that one day you would like to be asked, 'Hey Jasp, love your books. Can I pay off your mortgage and buy you a Hawker Hurricane?' Has that happened since? - But don't be too hopeful, I won't ask!

15: Do you want to tell something to your German readers on this occasion?









1: On the internet, there are numerous interviews with you. Also, an extensive collection can be found on your own website. Your books are praised, critics are amazed. Do you enjoy this publicity?

Well, it helps to sell books, and that's how I can keep this wonderful job. I try and keep some sense of proportion, though - I generally don't read reviews; I get my partner to read them and she gives me a 'points out of ten' precis. The thing is, if I read a so-so review I tend to worry about it far too much which wastes energy. I try and listen to readers and booksellers that I meet to build up a picture of how well the book has been received

2: Thursday Next is a literary agent of a complete different kind. Did you invent Thursday to kind of secure your books of plagiarism or kidnapping of your characters without your knowing?

No; Thursday's existence came into being to make some kind of sense of the concept that Jane Eyre gets kidnapped. Everything in that first book was there to make that idea not only possible, but likely. Once I was starting on the 2nd book she was a lot freer to develop as a person.

3: Have you ever made negative experience on this behalf before your books got published?

Not sure I understand what you mean here; no-one has ever accused me of plagiarism although some of my ideas have appeared first in other books that I didn't know about when I wrote mine. It's almost impossible these days to have an original idea, but I do try - I've not heard of the BookWorld or Jurisfiction idea being thought of before.

4: For J. K. Rowling, stolen manuscripts of actual Harry Potter novels have become reality long since. When will this become a job for Thursday Next?

In 'Lost in a Good Book' Thursday is on the trail of a missing copy of 'Cardenio', stolen from The Great Library.

5: How many of Thursday's adventures do you still want to write in the future?

There will be a fifth Thursday Next book in 2007; books about books are pretty limitless so the series is a long way from being exhausted.

6: Have you read all the books you mention in your own novels? What criteria are important for you in choosing the novels you write about?

Not all, but most. I choose them because they are popular, and people know what they are about - if they don't the jokes can fall a bit flat. They also have to be 'classics' which are usually seen as slightly stuffy and things you study at school - all the better to subvert! Lastly, they have to be in the public domain for me to reuse them. I've wanted to feature the Winnie the Pooh characters and some elements of H G Wells, but the copyright owners won't let me - which I respect. Being an author myself I'd be a fool not to.

7: Being familiar with the film business, who would be your favourite crew - in front of and behind the camera - for an adaptation of one of your books?

The problem here is that I know the film industry, and many very good books are made into very poor movies. We've all seen it happen. Sadly, the dense plotting and complexity of 'The Eyre Affair' that makes it so enjoyable as a book is just the sort of thing that would give it a high possibility of becoming a very bad movie. The short answer is that I don't think a movie will be made, and I haven't sold the rights. If there ever was a movie, I'm going to be the one to make it.

8: Lately, in Germany there are many small publishing houses, publishing less known authors or experimental novels by better known authors that usually don't have a chance with the big publishers. Are there similar developments in Wales and the rest of Britain? What's the British literary scene like?

I must say I haven't heard of what you describe, but then I don't really keep my eye on trends and the publishing industry in general - I tend to look at what I'm doing and concentrate on that. I meet other writers from time to time but I don't live in a literary world at all; perhaps if I'd become a writer when I was 22 rather than 39 it would be a lot different.

9: If you agree, I would like to talk a little bit about Jasper Fforde not as the author, but the man. You were born in Wales in 1961. Your father died in 2000. What was your relationship like? What did he do for a living? What about your mother? Do you have brothers or sisters?

There is very little to tell, really. My upbringing and family life were all very normal. I was probably the least academic member of my family - my father, two brothers and sister all had PhDs which no doubt gave me a strong incentive to try and do as well - if not better - than them without academic qualifications, but other than that I was entirely normal.

10: Was there some experience in your childhood paving your further way, especially concerning your job?

Not really. I just liked stories, I guess, and knew very early on that I wanted to work in Story. I got into the film branch of the storytelling industry at age 20 and didn't try to get out of it until I was 29; it took me almost ten years of solid writing work before I managed to get published and make it as an author.

11: What novel are you reading at the moment?

'Leave it to Psmith' by PG Wodehouse.

12: You own a pilot's licence. What kind of plane would you very much like to fly and what would be your favourite destination - regardless of any barrier?

I've always liked flying boats, and the idea of taking a Short Sunderland down through Europe and the middle east to Africa and the Cape always appealed...

13: In which novel would you like to spend your holiday?

A book about the formation of the earth; it must have been quite a sight - the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs would have been an awesome light show...

14: Once you told an interviewer that one day you would like to be asked, 'Hey Jasp, love your books. Can I pay off your mortgage and buy you a Hawker Hurricane?' Has that happened since? - But don't be too hopeful, I won't ask!

No, of course not - but I'd still like to be asked it, though.

15: Do you want to tell something to your German readers on this occasion?

Only how delighted I am that my books and my humour can cross barriers of language and culture - we should all of us have faith that hope and ideas will do the same.




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