1: How did the last good book you read end up in your hands, and why did you read it?

2: What's the most overused word about your fiction?

3: What CD's are you listening to? Who are your favourite musicians?

4: What's the best cure for writer's block?

5: Who are your favourite heroes in fiction?

6: Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good place to start.

7: Which literary character do you most identify with?

8: One book you wish you had written, and why.

9: Which painting, or other piece of art, best describes you?

10: When I sat down, my intent was to write a good book; and as far as the tenuity of my understanding would hold out--a wise, aye, and a discreet--taking care only, as I went along, to put into it all the wit and the judgment (be it more or less) which the great Author and Bestower of them had thought fit originally to give me--so that, as your worships see--'tis just as God pleases. Do you remember / recognize this quotation and could you have written that?

11: You ve often been asked about genre blending, the Thursday Next books overlapping many genres (science-fiction, fantasy, whodunnits, uchrony ). In what section are your books generally to be found in libraries and bookshops? Did you ever hear about them being found in curious sections?

12: Now that you ve reached a certain level of success, don t you think it would be a good commercial idea to re-issue old English classics that aren t read anymore presenting them as spin-offs from Thursday Next s adventures in order to boost their sales?

13: If you could use the Prose Portal, what book would you hate finding yourself in and why?

14: Your books are a windfall for literary analysts and scholars, since they provide a rich and curious example of intertextuality (a theory about the interconnection of texts and the relationship between one or more texts that quote from or allude to one another). Have you ever had contacts with University people interested in your work? Has any scholar begun analysing your prose and do you like the idea?

15: Did you ever consider the possibility that someone could write fiction using Thursday Next s world, just as you use other novel s worlds? What would your reaction be?

16: What is most surprising comparison you ve ever read or heard about your writing? Have you ever been compared to people you still can t understand why you were compared to?

17: Your website is particularly surprising. Few author websites are as rich as yours (special features, extra material, resources for journalists ), and it seems to be an ever-expanding network of texts and pages, which reminded me of Borges s library of Babel (an ever-expanding library containing every books ever written), which itself reminded me of your Great Library. Is that pure coincidence or is idea of ever-expanding collection of pages, plots and ideas a kind of obsession?

18: Have you ever given thought to the Mad Hatter s famous unanswered riddle, Why is a raven like a writing-desk? and do you have any answer to it?

19: I'd like to finish with a French tradition: In France we have a very famous literary journalist, Bernard Pivot, who used to have a tv show called Apostrophe . At the end of each show he would ask his guests to answer the same questions, which form what is now called Le questionnaire de Pivot (Pivot s questionnaire). Would you mind letting me pretend I'm Bernard Pivot and answer those questions? Here they are: What is your favourite word?

20: What is the word you hate most?

21: What is your favourite swearword?

22: What is your favourite drug?

23: What is your favourite sound or noise?

24: What is the one you hate most?

25: What would you like to reincarnate in?

26: If God exists, what would you like him to tell you when you meet him after death?

27: Rumor has it that the translation of your Thursday Next books into German isn 't the best to be. A student of English literature told, me, that your translator has missed same of the less known reminiscences you included. Have you heard anything about that, do you have any influence whatsoever about the foreign books re to appearances and / or translations?

28: The English books contained special advertisements you made up to amuse your reader - and yourself? The first two German editions missed these ads, the third book has at least some of these included. Have you any idea, why the publisher decided to cut the ads?

29: Your Thursday Next books show us a British Empire that once ago was overrun by German forces. Now it has regained strength and is in the middle of an ongoing war with the armys of the Russian Czar. What happened to Germany, will you in times to come tell us about the occupation if Britain by German forces, have you any connection to Germany?

30: How do react when you go on a signing or reading sessions abroad and at home, and hundreds of readers come to your reading? Are you satisfied, is it at least a bit scary, are you proud that you achieved such a large following?

31: Your web presence by which you communicate with fans is more extensive than most. Does this level of interaction with your audience feed into your writing?

32: Does the fact that your work is considered 'speculative fiction' limit its audience any? Are you writing for the masses or for a select few?

33: Does being the 'Thursday Next guy' make it difficult to break out into other projects?

34: Since your second book, you've been pretty much writing 'under contract'. How does this compare to writing the first one?

35: What's Swindon got that Slough hasn't got?

36: Your latest book 'The Big Over Easy' is a departure from your Thursday Next series. Did you deliberately set out to take a break from that character and the literary detective series?

37: Where and how did you dream up the idea of a criminal investigation into Humpty Dumpty's demise?

38: What other nursery rhymes will Jack and Mary be investigating?

39: Did Jill deliberately push jack down the hill?

40: The title is redolent of Chandler and Dashiel Hammet. Are you a fan of detective fiction and film noir or does it simply lend itself well to pastiche?

41: Have we seen the last of Thursday Next?

42: How do you explain the huge success of the literary detective, particularly overseas? Is it because this is a unique character and premise?

43: Would you like living in Thursday Next s world?

44: Why did you choose such strange name for your heroin?

45: And why do you choose Jane Eyre instead of Cathy Earnshaw or Elizabeth Bennet?

46: If you could change the plot of Jane Eyre as Archeron Hades does, what would you do?

47: Thursday resemble to Jane Eyre? If yes: in what?

48: How much your writing had filched from movies?

49: You are noted for your popular Thursday Next work, which chronicles the literary detective Thursday. The series is not one that can be pinned down to one genre category. Can you please tell describe to readers who may not have yet jumped into this series, what the premise of the Thursday Next series is?

50: Your have a new book coming out in July, The Big Over Easy: a nursery crime . This novel, if I am correct, takes place in the same setting as your Thursday Next work, but doesn t feature Thursday. What can we expect from this work, and would you consider it an accessible start off point for new readers?

51: I mentioned before your work is not easily categorized. It a times is called one, all, of a combination of a fantasy, alternate history, mystery, satirical/parody, and you come from a film background. With all that in mind, what or who influences your writing?

52: What can you we expect from you in the future? Any plans for any work outside of this series?

53: You have and maintain an expansive website. How important do you think the web contemporary authors, and how, if at all, do you feel has it helped you?

54: As already mentioned you did work in film industry. Is there any news on a possible adaptation, and also I saw a comment on your site, which reflect your adamant stipulation of total control of any such production. Is this motivated by things you have seen occur in prior adaptations? Ursula Leguin was in the news earlier this year, voicing her displeasure with the Sci-Fi channel adaptation of her Earth Sea work. Is it due to avoid similar circumstance or another altogether?

55: Can you please recommend authors or individual works that you admire, regardless of genre, contemporary or not.

56: Before being published you had a long & successful career behind camera on some famous films. Can you tell us about that?

57: The Eyre Affair was not your first book, and not the first to be rejected by a publisher either! What made you keep writing, and how did you feel when your book was finally published?

58: What has been the response around the world to a fairly unusual set of books?

59: Is there one author who has been a great influence on your work? (Sorry, I know you've been asked this a million times, but it's one people always want to know....)

60: You maintain an extensive website which introduces readers to BookWorld and entertains fans. How important is reader feedback to you?

61: What are the burdens, responsibilities and advantages of creating a series with popular characters and the odd famous literary figure? And are there any literary figures who are just too 'untouchable'?

62: There is a great deal of satire in your books about modern life in the UK (or perhaps just in Wales). Why do you think your books have been so popular around the world despite this? And will you be buying shares in Goliath Corporation?

63: What's next for Thursday Next?





Questions for stomaselli@gmail.com

1 How did the last good book you read end up in your hands, and why did you read it?

It was called Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop and is a factual account of the RAF pilots. It came into my hands by a very kind bookshop owner who asked me to pick any book in the shop as a thank you. When this happens I always ask for the deluxe version of that huge and monstrously expensive Muhammad Ali book GOAT which is about 3000. When this is refused I generally pick a paperback of some sort. I've always been an aviation nut, so that's why I chose this particular one. It s very good.

2 What's the most overused word about your fiction?

Cult . I'm often described as Cult author or the TN books are a Cult series. This word fits into the not sure what you really mean by that category which also includes postmodernism and genre transcendent. I generally think of Cult as being a group of people with a bizarre and possibly self-destructive level of obsessive ideology, and that doesn t describe people who read me. I prefer the term enthusiastic following but it's less newsworthy and doesn't look so good on a bulleted heading. I don't like the word fan, either. The mailbox on my e-mail programme that might usually be labelled fanmail I call chummail .

3 What CD's are you listening to? Who are your favourite musicians?

My taste in music is as broad as my tastes in story telling and really equates to what I think sounds good. iTunes on shuffle is a blast. I often hear Danse Macabre followed by the Delfonic's Didn't I and then Across the universe followed by Gorillaz 19-2000 and Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade, followed by Vivaldi s Lute and Mandolin concerto. All outstanding tracks, but for very different reasons.

4 What's the best cure for writer's block?

Writer s block doesn't exist. It s actually called work avoidance procrastination It strikes all people, in all walks of life. We just give it a grand title to promulgate that tortured artist nonsense.

5 Who are your favourite heroes in fiction?

Fishes out of water, generally. Anyone who is in a story and hopelessly out of their depth has a lot going for them.

6 Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good place to start.

P.G. Wodehouse, without a doubt. Funniest author writing in the English language. Pure joy and should be up there with Dickens, Austen, and Shakespeare. Begin with Summer Lightning and life will never be the same again.

7 Which literary character do you most identify with?

No idea. A mixture of Alain Quartermain and Biggles, I d like to think.

8 One book you wish you had written, and why.

The Little Prince by Antoine de St Exupery. A delightful allegory full of wonderful characters, pathos, extraordinary imagery and concepts of such comic simplicity that one stands awe-struck at their creation. The rose, the baobabs, the volcanos, the planet, the lamplighter...

9 Which painting, or other piece of art, best describes you?

Lizards by MC Esher. The two dimensional lizard pulls itself from the picture, gains 3-D solidity, climbs a set-square to the top of a dodecahedron, pauses to look at its surroundings and then returns to its flat existence. I loved the concept the moment I saw it - to me it represents an escape from the flat humdrum world, even for a moment. Storytelling is like that. In books we take the flat text, transform it momentarily into a vibrant three dimensional world, enjoy it and then leave it back on the bookshelf ready for the next person. I painted them on my car. It looks a bit odd but I like it.

Questions from C lia Schneebeli

10 When I sat down, my intent was to write a good book; and as far as the tenuity of my understanding would hold out--a wise, aye, and a discreet--taking care only, as I went along, to put into it all the wit and the judgment (be it more or less) which the great Author and Bestower of them had thought fit originally to give me--so that, as your worships see--'tis just as God pleases. Do you remember / recognize this quotation and could you have written that?

'No' on both counts. It looks like Bunyan or someone like that.

11 You ve often been asked about genre blending, the Thursday Next books overlapping many genres (science-fiction, fantasy, whodunnits, uchrony ). In what section are your books generally to be found in libraries and bookshops? Did you ever hear about them being found in curious sections?

Generally, I'm in the 'Fiction' section although sometimes I'm in Fantasy or SF. Foyles in London have me in six sections - bless them! I'm not a huge fan of pigeonholing. I'd like to see bookshops and libraries categorised by something else entirely - such as colour of the cover. One of the most interesting sections in a library is the 'oversize book' section which has a startlingly eclectic mix - it would be much more interesting if all shelves were the same...

12) Now that you ve reached a certain level of success, don t you think it would be a good commercial idea to re-issue old English classics that aren t read anymore presenting them as spin-offs from Thursday Next s adventures in order to boost their sales?

It might indeed. Many people have told me they've been switched on to the classics by reading Thursday's adventures. I'm delighted, of course.

13) If you could use the Prose Portal, what book would you hate finding yourself in and why?

'The Bumper book of recipes for Okra and Marzipan'. I can't stand either.

14) Your books are a windfall for literary analysts and scholars, since they provide a rich and curious example of intertextuality (a theory about the interconnection of texts and the relationship between one or more texts that quote from or allude to one another). Have you ever had contacts with University people interested in your work? Has any scholar begun analysing your prose and do you like the idea?

There are three people at last count doing a degree based on my work, and one person conducting a doctoral thesis. I'm not really troubled one way or another over this; academics have to study something, after all - just as long as I don't have to read any of them, and be asked to comment.

15) Did you ever consider the possibility that someone could write fiction using Thursday Next's world, just as you use other novel's worlds? What would your reaction be?

Well, I'd like them to do what I did: wait until I have been dead over a hundred years, or politely seek permission.

16) What is most surprising comparison you ve ever read or heard about your writing? Have you ever been compared to people you still can t understand why you were compared to?

Surprising comparison? All of them. Comparisons are a form of reviewer's shorthand - rather than discuss a book they often like to make it easier for themselves and the public by saying one's book is 'Mother Goose meets Morse' or something equally daft. You know you've made it when someone describes another book as 'Well, it's Jasper Fforde meets Dennis Wheatly' or something...

17) Your website is particularly surprising. Few author websites are as rich as yours (special features, extra material, resources for journalists ), and it seems to be an ever-expanding network of texts and pages, which reminded me of Borges's library of Babel (an ever-expanding library containing every books ever written), which itself reminded me of your Great Library. Is that pure coincidence or is idea of ever-expanding collection of pages, plots and ideas a kind of obsession?

I'm afraid it's a coincidence. Despite appearances I'm only patchily self-taught; I never went to university or studied English.

18) Have you ever given thought to the Mad Hatter's famous unanswered riddle, Why is a raven like a writing-desk? and do you have any answer to it?

In 'The Eyre Affair' when Thursday is in the Cheshire Cat Bar and Grill talking to the barman there are three proffered alternatives: "Poe wrote on both" is pretty good, "they both stoop with a flap" is average but "Because there is a B in Both" is my favourite.

I'd like to finish with a French tradition: In France we have a very famous literary journalist, Bernard Pivot, who used to have a tv show called Apostrophe . At the end of each show he would ask his guests to answer the same questions, which form what is now called Le questionnaire de Pivot (Pivot s questionnaire). Would you mind letting me pretend I'm Bernard Pivot and answer those questions? Here they are:

19 What is your favourite word?

Linoleum

20 What is the word you hate most?

Majestic

21 What is your favourite swearword?

Bollocks

22 What is your favourite drug?

Coffee

23 What is your favourite sound or noise?

Rain on a steel roof

24 What is the one you hate most?

Fingernails on a blackboard

25 What would you like to reincarnate in?

A loofah

26 If God exists, what would you like him to tell you when you meet him after death?

Why did you let Mozart die at 36 and Idi Amin at 78?

Questions for Carsten Kuhr

27 Rumor has it that the translation of your Thursday Next books into German isn't the best to be. A student of English literature told, me, that your translator has missed same of the less known reminiscences you included. Have you heard anything about that, do you have any influence whatsoever about the foreign books re to appearances and / or translations?

A: I hadn't heard this at all - in fact, I'd heard the opposite. German readers who have read both editions told me they thought it pretty good, given the problems of translating a somewhat unusual and perhaps very British book in tone and humour. No book can ever be translated faithfully as nations are so different from a cultural and linguistic point of view.

Still, in answer to the second part of your question, I have no say on who translates my book and rightly so - my German publishers have a far better idea of the right person to ask to translate a book, so it is entirely right and proper to leave it up to them.

28: The English books contained special advertisements you made up to amuse your reader - and yourself? The first two German editions missed these ads, the third book has at least some of these included. Have you any idea, why the publisher decided to cut the ads?

A: No idea, I'm afraid. The US Penguin edition also left them out on the first two books, and some other foreign language editions use them all, others not at all. It's down to individual editor's taste, as well as space. Sometimes to get a few extra pages in a book you have to add ten blank pages due to the way books are printed and bound. I like the adverts a lot, but the books can manage without them!

29: Your Thursday Next books show us a British Empire that once ago was overrun by German forces. Now it has regained strength and is in the middle of an ongoing war with the armys of the Russian Czar. What happened to Germany, will you in times to come tell us about the occupation if Britain by German forces, have you any connection to Germany?

A: I have no connection at with Germany, I'm afraid. The whole 'Germany occupies Britain' subplot was originally there as part of the 'Churchill dying when he shouldn't have and been unable to lead England' subplot which keen-eyed readers will notice running through the books. This whole plot device was going to be resolved later on in the series, but after speaking to many Germans since first publication, I've decided to drop the whole thing as it seems a bit patronizing going on about Germany's past when we should be looking forward. The idea, I think, will remain fossilised, like a fly in amber. It's not the only aspect of my work that I would have done differently had I a chance to rewrite the books - Thursday having a gun, for one thing. A clumsy plot contrivance, I think. Well, we live and learn.

30: How do react when you go on a signing or reading sessions abroad and at home, and hundreds of readers come to your reading? Are you satisfied, is it at least a bit scary, are you proud that you achieved such a large following?

A: The support that readers show my books is always welcome, and so far no-one has been scary at all - so I'll try and stay as accsessible as possible. There was a Fforde Ffestival in September this year, and several people commented on how much I was around during the event. It seemed strange not to, I thought. As I said, as long as no-one scares me, I will continue to do so.

Questions for Mike of Greatwriting.co.uk



31. Your web presence by which you communicate with fans is more extensive than most. Does this level of interaction with your audience feed into your writing?

I'm not sure my website is really much of a communication medium in truth - aside from the forum which I scan through every now and again (mostly for obscenties or spam), the level of two-way communication is limited to the 'reader's contribution' page which hasn't seen many additions recently. I tend not to think too much about what people think when it comes to book expectation. I'm very concious of the unspoken contract between reader and writer - you give me your hard-earned money and in return I agree to entertain - but I don't try and harvest my readers for ideas or anything unless it is something specific that I need to know, such as whether the 'happy families' game is known in the US, or something like that. I want to deliver the goods, of course, but I t end to regard my website as 'after sales service' for readers who only see a new Fforde book every year, and might want some Fforde-based tomfoolery in between. Where the website does help me is that I often use it as an 'R&D' lab for ideas - the 'Hamlet' and 'Pete and Dave's' page both helped me to figure out the context of the ideas and how they fit intoThursday's world.

32. Does the fact that your work is considered 'speculative fiction' limit its audience any? Are you writing for the masses or for a select few?

I didn't know that my work is considered 'speculative fiction'. I tend to think of it as fiction, pure and simple - I write the books and make them as good as I can to appeal to the broadest range of readers - it's up to others to mark out the labels.

33. Does being the 'Thursday Next guy' make it difficult to break out into other projects?

Not at all. I had a new series out this year and am working on several new projects, only one of them a new Thursday Next book. It's an exciting time for me as a semi-established author; established enough to be able to get books into print, but not established too much that the audience only wants the Thursday Next.

34. Since your second book, you've been pretty much writing 'under contract'. How does this compare to writing the first one?

I wrote six books before I was published, and four under contract. The only difference is that I have to write to a deadline, something that focuses the mind wonderfully.

35. What's Swindon got that Slough hasn't got?

The letter 'W' in its name.

Questions for Allan.



36'The Big Over Easy' is a departure from your Thursday Next series. Did you deliberately set out to take a break from that character and the literary detective series?

Most definitely. We d got to a natural break for the Thursday Next series and although we will see more of Thursday in the future, I thought we d have a breather in case reader or writer fatigue set in.

37 Where and how did you dream up the idea of a criminal investigation into Humpty Dumpty's demise?

It was a while ago - TBOE was actually my first finished book in 1994. It was rejected for publication many times. I think the idea came from firstly seeing Humpty in Lewis Carroll's 'Through the looking Glass' as a real person and the events from an Agatha Christie novel called 'A pocketful of Rye' where several murders are committed with that theme - including the blackbirds baked in the pie. I forget how it all turned out, but that might well have been a proto Jack Spratt book.

38 What other nursery rhymes will Jack and Mary be investigating?

The second book in the series is called 'The Fourth Bear' which re-examines the events surrounding Goldilocks and the three bears. It poses such questions as: 'Why did Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear sleep in separate beds?' To me this hints at marital disharmony in the bear family, and needs to be investigated.

39 Did Jill deliberately push jack down the hill?

Of course she did. When she should have been calling the emergency services she was actually wrapping his head in vinegar and brown paper - clearly not the act of someone supposed to be a loving partner. More importantly, why was the well at the top of a hill?

40. The title is redolent of Chandler and Dashiel Hammet. Are you a fan of detective fiction and film noir or does it simply lend itself well to pastiche?

I'm a fan of all fiction, really. However, the detective genre does lend itself well to pastiche, even gentle lampoonification. Ask yourself this: despite many movies and books depicting albinos as deranged psychopaths, how many people do you know who have been a victim of albino crime?

41. Have we seen the last of Thursday Next?

Not at all. Books about books and the reading and writing process have a lot going for them. If I can create 100,000 words around Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall, clearly grammersites, storycode engines, Jurisfiction and the Well of Lost Plots has a few more books in them.

42 How do you explain the huge success of the literary detective, particularly overseas? Is it because this is a unique character and premise?

I'd like to say because it is the masterwork of a great genius, but I suspect it's probably a mixture of being reverently irreverent over literary icons, a lot of silly jokes, a smattering of bizarre concepts and a vampire or two. I'm just delighted it sells.

Q&A for Brunella Schisa
30 Mar 2006

43 Would you like living in Thursday Next's world?

Yes; I would. It sounds like a lot of fun - literarture, airships, neanderthals, dodos, mammoths - all very colourful. But best of all a wonderful simple sense of morality and justice - there are good guys and there are bad guys and not much in between. If only it were that simple in real life! In many ways I do live in this world. Writing these books is a very immersive process, so when I am writing a Thursday book, for four months I am there.

44 Why did you choose such strange name for your heroin?

It is a (now archaic) way of saying 'Next Thursday' in English. You'll find it in Romeo and Juliet:

PARIS That may be must be, love, on Thursday next.

JULIET What must be shall be.

FRIAR LAURENCE That's a certain text.

But that's not where I got it from. My mother uses the term and I borrowed it from her. It has a nice long-short-long internal rhythm, too. 'Thurs-day-next' 'dum-de-dum'. Whenever I hear a phrase that might be a name but isn't, I just pigeonhole it for later use, and 'Thursday Next' is just a really good name. Female, of course - and slightly quirky and enigmatic. In the same way, 'Bowden Cable' is actually the sleeved cable used to operate bicycle brakes, and 'Braxton Hicks' is the name given to the practice contractions that proceed real contractions during childbirth. It's a good joke, but not everyone gets it...

45 And why do you choose Jane Eyre instead of Cathy Earnshaw or Elizabeth Bennet?

She's the most well known. Because much of the jokes are about having fun with the classics, and since I never wanted the book to be unapproachable by anyone who hasn't read them, I had to use a classic that most people had heard of and knew something about even if they'd never read the book. Jane Eyre seemed the only book that truly fulfilled this. If you hadn't read the book you might have seen the film, and if you hadn't seen the film, you'd almost certainly know Jane was a romantic heroine of the Victorian era. Incidentally, Cathy gets to appear in the third in the Thursday Next series, and 'Sense and Sensibility' is featured in the second book in the series - the policing agency that Thursday gets to work with in the rest of the series has its base in the ballroom of Norland Park.

46 If you could change the plot of Jane Eyre as Archeron Hades does, what would you do?

I don't want to spoil the book - but when 'The Eyre Affair' begins, 'Jane Eyre' has a terrible ending - Jane doesn't marry Rochester but goes to India with the drippy St John Rivers. Can a state of affairs be allowed to continue? Read 'The Eyre Affair' and find out!

47 Thursday resemble to Jane Eyre? If yes: in what?

I think so. She is feisty and independent and knows her mind. I've also dropped in a few characters in my book that reflect those in 'Jane Eyre' - Her boyfriend Landen Parke-Laine whom she can't quite agree with (Mr Rochester) her workmate Bowden Cable who secretly loves her and wants her to go with him to America (St John Rivers) and even Daisy Mutlar (Blanche Ingram) who appears to be going to marry her boyfriend. There are many parallels!

48 How much your writing had filched from movies?

Yes, I am sitting on the shoulders of giants, and have flown here on borrowed wings! My books are taken from all sources - from movies, books, TV shows, comics - you name it. Mind you, all authors borrow from previous writers, but since my books are really about other books or about storytelling, it seems only right and just and true that I take from all sources. With my books I tap into the readers collective conciousness - it's as though this world were real and you can walk through it, where characters from Star Wars might rub shoulders with Tristram Shandy. Truly, I have feasted at the great table of storytelling - and made off with the scraps!

Q&A For Someone

49: You are noted for your popular Thursday Next work, which chronicles the literary detective Thursday. The series is not one that can be pinned down to one genre category. Can you please tell describe to readers who may not have yet jumped into this series, what the premise of the Thursday Next series is?

Imagine that books are not hard immutable objects but actually an immensley complex story-telling technology, and the characters within them only actors playing the parts for your entertainment - that as soon as you close the covers of the book you are reading, they all relax and carry on their own lives, ready to spring into action as soon as you pick up the book again. This is true of all books, classics and romantic fiction, bad science fiction to Shakespeare. And when these characters are not working and off duty they have lives, hobbies and problems just like the rest of us. Thursday Next is a literary detective in the real world who finds herself caught up in this bizarre bookworld behind the covers when her insane inventor uncle designs a Prose Portal which is then used -quite against his will - to kidnap Jane Eyre from Jane Eyre . But there's more to it than that - lots more. Full of book references and recognisable characters from famous books, the Thursday Next series is not only an amusing and irreverant romp through the classics, but also a celebration of storytelling itself.

50: 'The Big Over Easy: a nursery crime . This novel, if I am correct, takes place in the same setting as your Thursday Next work, but doesn t feature Thursday. What can we expect from this work, and would you consider it an accessible start off point for new readers?

'The Big Over Easy', although referred to in one of the Thursday Next novels, is entirely stand alone and does not require any knowledge of the Thursday Next books at all. It is simply a crime thriller with a difference - Humpty Dumpty is the victim. That s right, the fall guy . He s found shattered beneath his favourite wall - and someone is responsible.

51: I mentioned before your work is not easily categorized. It a times is called one, all, of a combination of a fantasy, alternate history, mystery, satirical/parody, and you come from a film background. With all that in mind, what or who influences your writing?

The greatest influence has been, and continues to be the Alice' books by Lewis Carroll. A benchmark of inspired nonsense that any absurdist writer should try and attain. They were the first books I remember choosing to read of my own volition. (Important, I think; the first fifty or so dowdy reading primers are chosen for us. It is a learning to walk moment when you have the power to read, and, critically, choose to do so) I must have been seven years old at the time and was swept away by Alice's madcap escapades and respectful irreverence of established nursery characters and situations.

On subsequent readings I enjoyed it even more - truly a multi-layered book from which you can either just enjoy the story or, on a deeper level, understand the subtleties of the White Knight's 'names of names' metalanguage. It is no accident that many of the characters in my books originally appear in Alice - The Cheshire Cat, the Red Queen, the King and Queen of Hearts. I think the mix of highbrow and nonsense greatly appeals to me; Lewis Carroll was an extremely intelligent man and could make humorous connections in his writings that are as fresh, full of genuine charm and as delightful now as they were in the late nineteenth century.

But for all that Grade-A nonsense there is a strong and very logical construction of Alice's world. Everything that happens is entirely reasonable given the framework that Carroll creates. Alice herself is only mildly curious about growing larger or smaller, feels only timidity meeting Humpty Dumpty and will quite happily assist Tweedledee and Tweedledum to do battle. This 'compassionate observer' of all that is weird and wonderful and unexpected is something that I try to reflect upon Thursday. There is little that surprises or fazes her - she just shrugs and gets on with the job in hand; an unflappable guide to lead us about a fantastic place.

But in addition I think it would be fair to say that I am influenced by almost everything I see and read or hear. All writers are. I just tend to take life's rich tapestry and wring it out into a bucket, distil the contents and spread it thickly on paper.

52: What can you we expect from you in the future? Any plans for any work outside of this series?

Lots. I have two unpublished novels and am working on two new ideas for novels as well as the fifth Thursday Next adventure. It's an exciting time for me. Being a writer is great fun, especially in the absurdist/fantasy genre - the only limitation is my own imagination.

53. You have and maintain an expansive website. How important do you think the web contemporary authors, and how, if at all, do you feel has it helped you?

Impossible to say, really. It's not as though I could run my career without it and then compare the results. I don't think it can hurt, obviously, and is good for getting information across such as my signing apperances. I regard it as 'after sales service' but it does seem that it is used by a concentrated 'hard core' of readers who also like to go online a lot. I used to spend a lot more time on it - the bottom line is that my time is best spent writing more books, and I don't think anyone who likes the books and my website would disagree with that.

54. As already mentioned you did work in film industry. Is there any news on a possible adaptation, and also I saw a comment on your site, which reflect your adamant stipulation of total control of any such production. Is this motivated by things you have seen occur in prior adaptations? Ursula Leguin was in the news earlier this year, voicing her displeasure with the Sci-Fi channel adaptation of her Earth Sea work. Is it due to avoid similar circumstance or another altogether?

I'm always amused by writers who turn around and bemoan the moviemakers for wrecking their work, but you take that very great risk when you accept their money - there can't be any writers around who don't know what a complete pig's ear producers can make of a decent book. As Hemingway used to observe, you go to the Californian border, throw over your script and they chuck back the money. If you don't want to run the risk of them screwing it up, don't sell it. It's not as though they're holding a gun to your head, after all. For that reason I haven't let anyone have the rights, and won't do in the forseeable future. It's not as though my books have to be made into films, anyway.

55. Can you please recommend authors or individual works that you admire, regardless of genre, contemporary or not.

Always a tricky one this. Ten excellent books that I can read again and again (in no particular order)

1: 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice through the looking glass' (Lewis Carroll) Nonsense of the highest order, yet to be surpassed. Extraordinary invention on many levels. Read it as a child and later as an adult - you'll get different things from it. Special Mention: The Jabberwock wearing spats and a tunic in John Tenniel's excellent illustration.

2:'Three Men in a Boat' (Jerome K Jerome) A book that I still laugh out loud whilst reading. Fresh and joyous self-deprecating humor of lazy Victorian gentleman going for a cruise on the Thames in the late nineteenth century. I challenge anyone to read the 'Taking two cheeses by train' story without smirking. Special Mention: Montmorency the dog, cooking with a spirit stove and trying to open a tin.

3: 'Diary of a Nobody' (Bert and Weedon Grossmith) Again, a book of infinite charm written over a hundred years ago but still relevant to us today. Follow Charles Pooter, a middle class clerk as he attempts social climbing, dealing with his dissolute son Lupin and all the 'fads' of the time, with highly amusing consequences. Special Mention: The Pooter's odd friends, Cumming and Gowing, Parlour games, the bootscraper incident and the Mansion House Ball spelling mistake.

4: Slaughterhouse-5 (Kurt Vonnegut) A bizarre and surreal story that spans time-travel, the bombing of Dresden and conventions of Optometrists with a style, pace and verve that is extraordinary. Special Mention: The Tralfamadorian's centipede view of the life cycle of a human.

5: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) Much has been written about this book and it is all true. One of the finest, if not THE finest books of the twentieth century. Especially notable for the way in which the narrative unfolds as we go from character to character. The section where Milo Minderbinder explains to Yossarian how he can sell eggs cheaper than he bought them and still make a profit is quite simply a delight. Special Mention: The catch itself. It's the best there is.

6: To Kill a Mocking Bird (Harper Lee) Made a great impression on me when I first read it aged twelve and still makes me angry and frustrated after the verdict - you can feel the heat in the courtroom! Special Mention: The truth about Boo Radley.

7: The Little Prince (Antoine De St. Exupery) Allegorical children's book that continues to enthrall and delight. Oddly, St. Exupery wrote and illustrated this on a whim - the rest of his writing is good but does not reach the heights of 'Prince'. Perhaps because he wasn't trying and the door opened to his heart. Special Mention: The rose, the fox and the baobab trees. I never looked at one the same way ever again.

8: Summer Lightning (P.G.Wodehouse) I mention this one book although I dearly love all of Wodehouse's writing. 'Summer Lightning' is probably the most indicative of his work. A story set at Blandings Castle in Shropshire In the twenties, it has all the Wodehouse elements: Forbidden love trysts in the rose garden, idiot sons, fearful aunts, damaging unpublished memoirs, theft, intrigue, pretty dancers and an impostor - there is always at least one at Castle Blandings. Special Mention: Empress Blandings, winner of the Shropshire Fat Pig Competition - Lord Emsworth hopes.

9: Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh). Again, I mention this book but his others are equally as good; 'Scoop' being my next favorite. 'Decline and Fall' has an episodic quality that I enjoy immensely and snaps along with a dry humor to die for. Special Mention: Captain Grimes and Margot Beste-Chetwynde. Comic creations with depth and humor.

10: The Calculus Affair (Herge (George Remi)) I'm a long-time Tintin fan and he remains a big inspiration for story telling. 'The Calculus Affair' is one of the later books and probably the best. By this time Herge's illustrations, characterization and humor was never better. The story about secret inventions and kidnappings by foreign powers just snaps along at a breakneck speed. Tank, Helicopter and car chases - this book is like a movie on paper! Special Mention: The locations drawn in the book are for real. You can visit them.

Q&A for Cathy Wassell
Sales and Marketing Manager
Kinokuniya Publications Service


56: Before being published you had a long & successful career behind camera on some famous films. Can you tell us about that?

Sure. I began as a teaboy and office 'runner' in Shepperton studios in 1981 on a film called 'Pirates of Penzance'. The copyright to all the Gilbert & Sullivan operas had just come into the public domain, so quite a few people were making them. Oddly enough, the BBC did six of them in the same time that we did one! Ah, those oft-remembered carefree days! The Xerox photocopier only did one copy at a time. You fed it in, waited about twenty seconds and the faded copy veeeeeery slowly came out of a slot at the bottom. Multiple copies of callsheets and stuff were done on an ink-transfer printing machine called a Gestetner. Proper photocopying had to be sent 'to London'. We made coffee the same way, though. The star of the show was an actor named Rex Smith who everyone thought was going to be a huge hit but we never heard from him again. An unknown named Kevin Kline as the pirate king stole the show, along with Angela Lansbury and Linda Ronstadt. My first film a musical - I would meet crew members years later still humming the tunes, and I have a couple of props in my house even now.

After that, I gradually worked my way up through the ranks, ending up in the camera department, a focus puller on films such as 'Goldeneye', 'Entrapment', 'The Mask of Zorro' and 'The Saint.' Look carefully and you can even see me in the 'making of' documentary! By 2000 I was beginning to make the move to being a cameraman which means taking a very long slide down the ladder; I did about 10 low budget/no budget shorts and one commercial - for Mr Kipling's French Fancies, as it happens (it's a sort of cake) when all of a sudden a hobby which I had begun ten years previously suddenly bore fruit. The hobby? Writing!

57: The Eyre Affair was not your first book, and not the first to be rejected by a publisher either! What made you keep writing, and how did you feel when your book was finally published?

I think I had 76 rejections, which, when you consider they were over ten years, shows I wasn't really trying that hard! I kept on writing because I enjoyed it. Once the first two books were roundly rejected I really thought it was possible - even probable - that I would never be published. But it didn't really matter as I was enjoying the process. In fact, it was a tremendous release - since I was not going to be published it didn't matter what I wrote. Crimean war? No problem! Reengineered dodos? Bring them on! Catching meteorites with pitchers gloves? Go for it! So in a strange sort of way the rejection actually helped. I didn't have to play it safe or have an audience or publisher in mind - I just wrote it for myself. Then, when I was finally picked up they did so because my novels were -how shall we put it? Unusual. The weakness - the oddity of my books - had become the strength. The lesson here for would be writers is clear - write your own material and ignore publishers who tell you what people will read!

58: What has been the response around the world to a fairly unusual set of books?

Strangely enough, fairly uniform. I had thought readers in the US might not 'get it' but I was delightfully surprised that they did very much 'get it' - sometimes in ways that the English audiences didn't. It has been well received in Australia and New Zealand where its subversive treatment of the classics seems to hit the right post-colonial nerve. The thing is, what I am doing in very simple terms is to tap into a large collective memory and consciousness - the way we were taught English, the way we were all meant to regard the classics as some sort of hallowed ground. I always thought the classics were meant for reading, not study. As soon as one became a 'study text' a stormcloud of pompous academia used to gather and spoiled their true lustre - I now find other people thought the same. To have fun with material that was treated so seriously when you were growing up has a sort of mildly subversive air, I feel - and with a bit of luck I can help readers look at the classics and Shakespeare from a new and unusual angle.

59: Is there one author who has been a great influence on your work? (Sorry, I know you've been asked this a million times, but it's one people always want to know....)

Probably 'Alice in Wonderland' as it was the first book I remember picking up to read of my own volition, aged perhaps eight or nine. The Cheshire Cat's nonsequitous behavior, the Duchess, the 'off with his head!' Queen of Hearts, and croquet with flamingos and hedgehogs are as familiar to me as my own backyard. I think the mix of highbrow and nonsense greatly appealed to me; Lewis Carroll was an extremely intelligent man yet could make humorous connections in his writings that are as fresh, full of genuine charm and as delightful now as they were in the late nineteenth century. I still have that very same copy of 'Alice' in my library today. In many ways Thursday is Alice, guiding us through her own wonderland and like Alice, never seems to be that surprised by what happens!

60: You maintain an extensive website which introduces readers to BookWorld and entertains fans. How important is reader feedback to you?

Feedback is a double-edged sword, really. I want to make sure that readers get the most out of my books but I also want to keep them guessing. I note what gets posted on the forum and read letters that people very kindly send me, but I try to stay independent, hoping that what I find amusing, readers might too. I suppose the thing to try and do is give people what they want - but not in the manner they expect it.

61: What are the burdens, responsibilities and advantages of creating a series with popular characters and the odd famous literary figure? And are there any literary figures who are just too 'untouchable'?

Well, using literary characters I have to be careful to get them 'right'. Although my books can and do have appeal to people who are not literary scholars I wanted them to appeal to the English majors too, so when I am going to subvert a character like Jane Eyre or Miss Havisham, I need to know what they would do and how they might react and then add a few plausible embellishments of my own - Miss Havisham's love of fast cars, for instance. In 'The Well of Lost Plots' I wanted a rage counseling session inside 'Wuthering Heights' so had to read the book again in order to know the characters well enough so I can gather them in a room and have them all talking to one another - and not be rumbled by a 'Wuthering Heights' fan. It's attention to detail, really.

Untouchable literary figures? Some, perhaps. Scout Finch from 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' always struck me as such a great character that subverting her in any manner would be disrespectful and do no service to the original novel. But that's more of a modern classic, isn't it? I prefer to stay with the cobwebs of the classics where they have grown hardened with age - and no novelists around to accuse me of copyright infringements, either!

62: There is a great deal of satire in your books about modern life in the UK (or perhaps just in Wales). Why do you think your books have been so popular around the world despite this? And will you be buying shares in Goliath Corporation?

'Despite this'? Do you think people don't like satire? On the contrary, I think they love it, although to be honest I use satire for two reasons: firstly because it makes Thursday's world instantly recognizable as something very like our own. Meddling governments, scheming multinationals, bureaucracy gone mad - all of these we can see around us and it makes Thursday's struggle more like our own. Secondly, it's just great fun and highly desirable to show up the utter pointlessness of some rules and regulations in our world and the sometimes excruciatingly banality of television - and a whole host of other modern ills.

63: What's next for Thursday Next?

The fifth installment in the Thursday Next series, 'First Among Sequels' will be coming out in the UK/US in July 2007. It is fourteen years since Thursday Next pegged out at the 1988 SuperHoop, and her son Friday is now sixteen. As previous meetings with the young man might indicate, he should be thinking of entering the Academy of Time in order to fulfil his destiny at the ChronoGuard, but he has decided instead to pursue a career in music - and now leads a teenage rockband called 'Snot'. Exasperation at her son's time-career non-fulfillment is but one of Thursday's problems at present.

Meanwhile, Goliath have perfected their own 22-seater Prose Portal Luxury Coach, and plan on taking literary tourists on a maiden voyage to the works of Jane Austen. 'The future of books is interactivity', claims the upper management at the Council of Genres, 'and regulated book travel is far preferable to an unregulated tourism industry.' Thursday is naturally appalled at the prospect, but her objections fall on deaf ears, and Thursday herself is selected to accompany the 'Austen Rover' as it travels on its maiden voyage into Pride and Prejudice.

Of course, all is not what it seems and Thursday soon realises that Goliath is up to its old tricks again. With the future of the entire Bookworld in jeopardy and a mass erasure threatening the very fabric of fiction itself, Thursday must travel to the very outer limits of acceptable narrative possibilities to do battle with old foes and new adversaries...