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| Top authors to auction character names for torture survivor charity | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Fancy appearing in a Margaret Atwood novel? Or perhaps playing a pivotal role in Ian McEwan’s next endeavour? | Fancy appearing in a Margaret Atwood novel? Or perhaps playing a pivotal role in Ian McEwan’s next endeavour? |
| Seventeen authors, including Atwood, McEwan, Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith and Will Self, are selling naming rights to characters in upcoming works next month, in a charity auction in London. | Seventeen authors, including Atwood, McEwan, Julian Barnes, Zadie Smith and Will Self, are selling naming rights to characters in upcoming works next month, in a charity auction in London. |
| Money raised from the sale, suitably dubbed the Immortality Auction, will go to Freedom from Torture, a charity that provides therapies and support to torture survivors. | Money raised from the sale, suitably dubbed the Immortality Auction, will go to Freedom from Torture, a charity that provides therapies and support to torture survivors. |
| As a patron for Freedom from Torture, English author Julian Barnes was the first to donate a character in an upcoming short story. Barnes was followed by a prestigious list, consisting of Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Alan Hollinghurst, Joanna Trollope, Martina Cole, Sebastian Faulks, Robert Harris, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Ken Follett, Will Self, Kathy Lette, Adam Mars-Jones, Adam Foulds, Pat Barker and Tracy Chevalier. | As a patron for Freedom from Torture, English author Julian Barnes was the first to donate a character in an upcoming short story. Barnes was followed by a prestigious list, consisting of Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Alan Hollinghurst, Joanna Trollope, Martina Cole, Sebastian Faulks, Robert Harris, Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Ken Follett, Will Self, Kathy Lette, Adam Mars-Jones, Adam Foulds, Pat Barker and Tracy Chevalier. |
| Chevalier is offering a female reader a chance to be immortalised as a landlady in her next novel. “I am holding open a place in my new novel for Mrs— ideally a Mrs—[your surname], tough-talking landlady of a boarding house in 1850s Gold Rush-era San Francisco,” she said. “The first thing she says to the hero is: ‘No sick on my stairs. You vomit on my floors, you’re out.’” | Chevalier is offering a female reader a chance to be immortalised as a landlady in her next novel. “I am holding open a place in my new novel for Mrs— ideally a Mrs—[your surname], tough-talking landlady of a boarding house in 1850s Gold Rush-era San Francisco,” she said. “The first thing she says to the hero is: ‘No sick on my stairs. You vomit on my floors, you’re out.’” |
| Ever the vocal critic of religion, McEwan told prospective bidders to “forget the promises of the world’s religions”, for the auction “offers the genuine opportunity of an afterlife”. | Ever the vocal critic of religion, McEwan told prospective bidders to “forget the promises of the world’s religions”, for the auction “offers the genuine opportunity of an afterlife”. |
| Atwood is offering a choice to bidders: the chance to appear in the novel she is currently working on, or to pop up in her retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to be published as part of Vintage Books’s Hogarth Shakespeare programme in 2016. | Atwood is offering a choice to bidders: the chance to appear in the novel she is currently working on, or to pop up in her retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, to be published as part of Vintage Books’s Hogarth Shakespeare programme in 2016. |
| While the auction has some big name donors, it is not the first time authors have offered naming rights to readers for charity: in 2005, eBay hosted a charity auction offering the chance to buy the right to name characters in books by authors including Stephen King, John Grisham, Dave Eggers and Michael Chabon. The winner of King’s auction paid US $25,100 to name a character after her little brother: zombie killer Ray Huizenga later played a vital role in King’s 2006 novel Cell. | While the auction has some big name donors, it is not the first time authors have offered naming rights to readers for charity: in 2005, eBay hosted a charity auction offering the chance to buy the right to name characters in books by authors including Stephen King, John Grisham, Dave Eggers and Michael Chabon. The winner of King’s auction paid US $25,100 to name a character after her little brother: zombie killer Ray Huizenga later played a vital role in King’s 2006 novel Cell. |
| More recently, two fans paid £20,000 each to be slaughtered by George RR Martin, in upcoming books in his bloody Game of Thrones saga, with the money split between a wolf sanctuary and a food charity in North Mexico. | More recently, two fans paid £20,000 each to be slaughtered by George RR Martin, in upcoming books in his bloody Game of Thrones saga, with the money split between a wolf sanctuary and a food charity in North Mexico. |
| Tickets are currently on sale for the Immortality Auction, which will be held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on November 20. Readers who are unable to attend can submit bids online from November 5 until the day of the auction. | Tickets are currently on sale for the Immortality Auction, which will be held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on November 20. Readers who are unable to attend can submit bids online from November 5 until the day of the auction. |