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Fforde, Jasper

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 20 February 2025 by Hodder & Stoughton (Hodder Paperback) in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 448 pages
129 x 199 x 31 | 314g

‘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’ IndependentHundreds 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 brilliant as Shades of Grey.