Shades of Grey

Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour.

Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey . . .

If George Orwell had tripped over a paint pot or Douglas Adams favoured colour swatches instead of towels . . . neither of them would have come up with anything as eccentrically brilliant as Shades of Grey.

“This colour-coded world of black-and-white regulations and heirachies is created with spry invention and wit”

Fforde seems to have come of age with Shades of Grey. It is altogether more substantial than his previous offerings and unlike them, planned as the first of a trilogy. It s a change of pace, a slight change of style and it is darker. In a word: brilliant - The Sunday Telegraph

Wild and inventive comic fantasy series that deserves its vast popularity - The Age

Fforde juxtaposes quirky humour with dark scenarios, and the result is an entertaining but edgy story with startling relevance for today s world. - The Courier Mail

Brave New World meets 1984 in a new series from British comic genius Jasper Fforde...Fforde's synaesthetic dystopia is intricately wrought and this opening to a promised trilogy will leave readers impatient for more. - The Sunday Times

Upbeat, engaging and at times wickedly unusual in conversation, Fforde is refreshingly devoid of all literary pretension." - West Australian

'Fforde s books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted . . . and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett' - Independent

'Fans of the late Douglas Adams or, even, Monty Python, will feel at home with Fforde' - Herald

'No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality of the works, nor to their vast repertoire of intricate wordplay and puns' - The Times

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.

Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour.Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey . . .If George Orwell had tripped over a paint pot or Douglas Adams favoured colour swatches instead of towels . . . neither of them would have come up with anything as eccentrically brilliant as Shades of Grey.

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