Red Side Story

It's the UK, but not as we know it: civilisation has rebuilt after an unspoken 'Something that Happened' five hundred years before. Society is now colour-based, the strict levels of hierarchy dictated by the colours you can see, and the economy, health service, and citizen's aspirations all dominated by visual colour, run by the shadowy National Colour in far-off Emerald City.

Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, Eddie Russett and Jane Grey have discovered that all is neither fair nor truthful within their cosy environment, and currently face trumped up charges that will see them die of the fatally soporific tones within the Green Room.

Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, Jane and Edward must find out the truth of their world: What is it, where is it, and even when it is. As they unpeel the lies that cloak their existence they come to the worrying conclusion that they may not be alone: That there might be a Somewhere Else beyond the sea, and more, Someone Else living there - and observing them all, purposefully unseen.

Red Side Story delves into the strictures of a society imposed on itself by itself, immovable dogma and the spirit of humans trying to love and survive and make sense of a world that makes no sense at all. Only it does, of course - you just have to look harder, look further, and forget everything you've ever been told.

'Fforde is one of literature's most enjoyable visionaries, and his long-awaited Shades of Grey sequel will be eagerly seized upon by his admirers... The jokes are excellent, the pacing breathless and the last line a classic' Observer

'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

'No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality' The Times

'Brilliantly inventive' Mail on Sunday