The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde vividly reimagines world history and the intellectual hierarchies that hold power over our society. In Fforde's world, which contains more advanced technology and a shared understanding and passion for literature, alternative regimes have carved out new political power structures unseen by the world today. The primary political difference lies in the continued existence of the Crimean War — which, starting in 1854, saw the alliance of Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia against Russia ("Crimean War").

(Regent Street in Swindon in 1978)

Capital city of the island of Lesbos, and birthplace of Sappho. Simeon Solomon's "Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mitylene" (1864) would have