Something Rotten
For Maddy, Rosie, Jordan & Alexander
With all my love
April 2004
The Thursday Next series in chronological order:
The Eyre Affair
Lost in a Good Book
The Well of Lost Plots
Contents
Dramatics Personae
1. A Cretan Minotaur in Nebraska
2. No Place Like Home
3. Evade the Question Time
4. A Town Like Swindon
5. Ham(let) and Cheese
6. SpecOps
7. The Literary Detectives
8. Time Waits for No Man
9. Eradications Anonymous
10. Mrs Tiggy-Winkle
11. The Greatness of St Zvlkx
12. Spike and Cindy
13. Milton
14. The Goliath Apologarium
15. Meeting the CEO
16. That Evening
17. Emperor Zhark
18. Emperor Zhark Again
19. Cloned Will Hunting
20. Chimeras and Neanderthals
21. Victory on the Victory
22. Roger Kapok
23. Granny Next
24. Home Again
25. Practical Difficulties Regarding Uneradications
26. Breakfast with Mycroft
27. Weird Shit on the M4
28. Dauntsey Services
29. The Cat Formerly Known as Cheshire
30. Neanderthal Nation
31. Planning Meeting
32. Area 21: The Elan
33. Shgakespeafe
34. St Zvlkx and Cindy
35. What Thursday Did Next
36. Kaine versus Next
37. Before the Match
38. WCL Superhoop '’88
39. Sudden Death
40. Second First Person
41. Death Becomes Her
42. Explanations
43. Recovery
44. Final Curtain
Credits
Dramatis Personae
Thursday Next: Ex-operative from Swindon's literary detective office of SpecOps 27 and currently head of Jurisfiction, the policing agency that operates within fiction to safeguard the stability of the written word.
Friday Next: Thursday's son, aged two.
Granny Next: Resident of Goliath Twilight Homes, Swindon. Aged no and cannot die until she has read the ten most boring classics.
Wednesday Next: Thursday's mother. Resides in Swindon.
Landen Parke-Laine: Husband of Thursday who hasn't existed since he was eradicated in 1947 by the Goliath Corporation, eager to blackmail Miss Next.
Mycroft Next: Inventor uncle of Thursday's and last heard of living in peaceful retirement within the backstory of the Sherlock Holmes series. Designer of Prose Portal and sarcasm early warning device, among many other things. Husband to Polly.
Colonel Next: A time-travelling knight errant, he was eradicated by the ChronoGuard, a sort of temporal policing agency. Despite this, he is still about and meets Thursday from time to time.
Cat, formerly known as Cheshire: The ex-Wonderland Uberlibrarian at the Great Library. And Jurisfiction agent.
Pickwick: A pet dodo of very little brain.
Bowden Cable: Colleague of Thursday's at the Swindon Literary Detectives.
Victor Analogy: Head of Swindon Literary Detectives.
Braxton Hicks: Overall commander of the Swindon Special Operations network.
Daphne Farquitt: Romance writer whose talent is inversely proportional to her sales.
The Goliath Corporation: Vast, unscrupulous multinational corporation keen on spiritual and global domination.
Commander Trafford Bradshaw: Popular hero in 1920s ripping adventure stories for boys, now out of print and notable Jurisfiction agent,
Melanie Bradshaw (Mrs): A gorilla, married to Commander Bradshaw.
Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, Emperor Zhark, The Red Queen, Falstaff, Vernham Deane: All Jurisfiction operatives, highly trained.
Yorrick Kaine: Whig politician and publishing media tycoon. Also right-wing Chancellor of England, soon to be made dictator. Fictional, and sworn enemy of Thursday Next.