Geographical location?

[Rachelle]

Anybody have a guess as to where East Carmine is located? My guess is China. Due to the fact that they mention giraffes and elephants. And also in the chapter called "Pepetwlait and Vermeer" when Jane shows Eddie the panel in the Perpetulite it has these words engraved: "Pepetwlait Heol Canolfan Cymru A470 21.321 km Secshwn 3B. Wedi cidi 11.1.2136" The "Seschwn" sounding like a place in China. Anybody else?

[[deleted user]]

I'm going to say Wales as Cyrmu is the Welsh word for Wales plus heol, canolfan and wedi are also Welsh words for road, centre and after (according to an online dictionary). The A470 is a road that runs through Wales from the north to south coasts. Also Jasper Fforde lives in Wales.

[Marianne]

I reckon Wales too. Giraffes and elephants might have escaped from the zoo in the time before whatever happened. I think Secshwn could be Section

[Wendy]

Rachelle wrote: "Anybody have a guess as to where East Carmine is located? My guess is China. Due to the fact that they mention giraffes and elephants.

But giraffes are african - yes the chinese explorers took a couple of giraffes back home with them, but they are as an exotic animal in China as in England. or wales

[Richard]

It's in Wales.

East Carmine is the town of Rhayader, Rusty Hill is Builth Wells and Vermillion is Hereford.

Blue Sector West is Birmingham.

[Amillo]

Well, Badly Drawn Map is Mappa Mundi, which is in display in Hereford so I guess it fits.
Giraffes, giant swans, and other lifeforms seems to be reengineered before the "something that happend"

[Amillo]

Quick search on the nets - Fforde himself answered that:
"East Carmine: Rhayder. The biggest clue was when Jane unlocks the Perpetulite. The road here is still the A470 (no reason to change, really) and the 'Heol Canolfan Cymru' means 'Central Wales Road' in Welsh. There are also some GPS co-ordinates to clinch it, and Doug tells Eddie all about the 'Five part dam complex' which they drive past - the Elan, also mentioned in several TN books. There is talk of the 73-mile aqueduct, too, which now, as then, feeds Birmingham ( Blue Sector West)

Rusty Hill: Builth Wells. It is roughly 14 miles from East Carmine in a Southerly direction, and Zane the wrongspot's spoon is engraved with an LD2. There is also a stone bridge there, and the railway would have been the other side of the river. We used to do all our shopping here when I was a kid, and for a treat, went to have ice-cream in Conti's cafe (now no longer there, worse luck)

Vermillion: Hereford. It's about the right distance, has the Oz connection, a map museum, and today has the Green Dragon Hotel, mentioned several times in the book.

The linking factor is the River Wye. (Half a point for all three locations correct, then half a point for the linking factor)"

[Isabel (kittiwake)]

High Saffron, where their journey ends, is likely to be Aberywstwyth.