Fforde, Jasper
Persona
Jasper Fforde ha alle spalle tredici anni da leone nel grande circo del cinema. Soggetti, adattamenti e sceneggiature di film come "La maschera di Zorro" o "Entrapment". E qualche anno di scrittura per sé, per puro divertimento. Poi, inizia a spedire il famoso dattiloscritto agli editori ricevendo un rifiuto dietro l'altro. Lui sostiene di aver conservato le settantasei lettere con il no degli editori. Quando Hodder & Stoughton gli risponde finalmente sì, verso la fine del 2000, e poi nel luglio 2001 pubblica "Il caso Jane Eyre", autore e romanzo diventano un vero e proprio fenomeno.
Prima in Inghilterra, poi negli Usa, in Polonia e in Russia, da ultimo in Germania e Francia Jasper è stato adottato, coccolato e superlanciato da editori con i baffi. A cadenza regolare, sempre in luglio, ecco una nuova puntata della saga che vede protagonista la detective letteraria Thursday Next. Poi, dall'estate 2005, nuova serie e nuovo ispettore. Le cifre sono impressionanti.
Nel frattempo, a Swindon, la cittadina dove Fforde vive e dove sono ambientati i romanzi di Thursday Next, nel settembre 2005 si sono radunati migliaia di fan per festeggiarlo.
Jasper has thirteen successful years in the cinema world under his belt (story lines, adaptations and scriptwriting of movies such as "The Mask of Zorro" and "Entrapment") and some years of writing for himself, just for fun. When he first started sending his famous typescript to publishersit was just one refusal after another! He says he has kept all the seventy-six letters with which publishers had refused his novel. But we can hardly believe him. They seem a few too many considering the fact that when in 2001 Hodder & Stoughton accepted his "The Eyre Affair", both author and novel became a true editorial phenomenon. First in the UK and then in the US, Poland, Russia, Germany and France, Jasper was accepted, cuddled and launched by first class publishers. At regular intervals, always in July, he published new episodes of the saga in which literary detective Thursday Next was the protagonist. Then, in summer 2005, came a new series and a new detective. Figures are impressive. It started quietly with 25,000 copies sold in the first six months and then the real takeoff. The extremely up-to-date author's website offers details of sales and forthcoming editions all over the world.
"The Eyre Affair" has reached its 29th edition in the UK, its13th in the US. It has sold nearly three hundred thousand copies.
In September 2005, in Swindon, the city where Fforde lives and where his novels of Thursday Next are set, thousands of fans gathered to celebrate him.
In the meantime, Jasper writes, travels and quite often flies here and there with his funny little plane.