(Regent Street in Swindon in 1978)

Not far into the novel, The Eyre Affair, the main character Tuesday Next decides to move back to her childhood town of Swindon, England, and work there. Although she does not tell anyone, it seems to be assumed that Tuesday also moves back to Swindon to work, in order to find the wanted criminal and murderer “Hades,” who everyone believes died in a failed mission, which Tuesday was the sole survivor of.

Swindon is located in the northeastern area of Wiltshire county, which is in southern England (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Historically, until 1841, Swindon was a small market town, yet the population increased quickly when the Great Western Railway built its main engineering works in Swindon (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). In addition, in the 1950’s, Swindon “decided to accept overspill population and industry from Great London” which is only 75 miles east of Swindon (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica). Usually, when a character returns to their hometown in any story, their hometown is characterized as very small. However, Tuesday’s hometown of Swindon is not a typical small hometown. 

The Eyre Affair, while pointing to real cities and real places, and some real historical events, fictionalizes these places and events in some way. Swindon, in the novel, seems to be a Shakespeare-obsessed town. For example, when Tuesday arrives back in Swindon, she tells the reader about the “Will-Speak” machines. She explains, “The machine would dispense a short snippet of Shakespeare for ten pence” (Fforde 81). The machines are said to portray various characters from Shakespeare’s plays. The one Tuesday comes across on her first day, for example, is of Richard III (Fforde 81). 

Although these machines are not too crazy to think of as being highly unreal, and actually seem quite plausible, they do not actually exist in Swindon. It is also not true that everyday people walk around Swindon, pretending to be the English poet, John Milton (which seems more unrealistic than the Will-Speak machines). However, a quick Google search of Shakespeare in Swindon, England will show you events where Shakespeare plays are being performed in various theaters across the city. While Swindon does seem to enjoy Shakespeare and keeps his work alive, the city and the people in the city are probably not as obsessed with Shakespeare and English works from centuries ago, as they are portrayed and characterized in Fforde’s The Eyre Affair. Fforde makes use of utilizing real places across England, and fictionalizing them, making them slightly uncanny with the people’s obsession with British literary works.

Works Cited:

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Swindon.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/place/Swindon. 

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. Penguin Books, 2001.

Robins, Tina. “Regent Street in 1978.” Swindon Advetiser, Swindon Advertiser, 22 Oct. 2020, https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/18813399.nostalgia-town-centre-.... Accessed 9 Apr. 2022.