Follow-up to Fforde’s cult bestseller Shades of Grey unveiled by Hodder

Hodder & Stoughton has unveiled Jasper Fforde’s follow-up to his novel Shades of Grey, published in 2011.

Red Side Story will be published on 6th February 2024 by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It will be published as a hardback, e-book and audio. Fforde’s agent is Will Francis at Janklow and Nesbit, and Red Side Story is currently on submission elsewhere internationally. UK and Commonwealth rights were acquired by Carolyn Mays (former m.d. at Hodder), with the book now edited by Jo Dickinson, executive publisher at Hodder.

The publisher says: “Imagine a world where you can only see things in black and white, and where colour is a commodity. It is a world invented by Jasper Fforde and it was the setting for his novel Shades of Grey which became a cult bestseller 13 years ago.

“Shades of Grey went on to sell over 200,000 copies and fans have been clamouring for a follow up book ever since. Now the wait is finally over. In Red Side Story we find Eddie Russett (red, middle-level) and Jane Grey (monochromatic, lowest in society) facing a death sentence for flagrant rule-breaking. Time is running out to mount their defence so, between them, they must negotiate the delicate Chromatic politics of society to find out what the ‘Something that Happened’ actually was, how society got to be this way, and crucially, is there Somewhere Else beyond their borders where they could actually escape to?”

Dickinson said: "Jasper’s books are written with such wit and edge, as well as being superbly plotted and embellished with rich details reminiscent of Pratchett. In short, Jasper will create a show-stopping campaign to support this brilliant novel."

Fforde said: “Revisiting Jane and Eddie’s world has been a delight and Red Side Story was a blast to write”