- Corduroy mansions
About the project
Corduroy Mansions is the first online novel by
Alexander McCall Smith , author of the popularNo 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The author is writing a chapter a day, starting from 15th September, and the series will run for 20 weeks, totalling 100 episodes. The daily chapters are also available as an audio download each day. The chapters will be read byAndrew Sachs , who is best known as Manuel fromFawlty Towers .The project is a collaboration between
Telegraph Media Group ,Little Brown Group andPolygon (the fiction imprint ofBirlinn Ltd )Episodic writing
The concept for Corduroy Mansions is based on
Charles Dickens ’episodic writing – which were novels serialised through journals in weekly or monthly instalments, in the 1800s. Alexander McCall Smith pursued this method of writing in 2004 with his novel44 Scotland Street . The story was serialised in instalments every weekday throughThe Scotsman newspaper. As Corduroy Mansions is being released online, readers have the opportunity to interact with each other and the author himself, through online discussion boards.The plot
The story is set in Corduroy Mansions in
London and details the lives of the inhabitants of the largePimlico house.The main characters are : Barbara Ragg; Basil Wickramsinghe; Berthea Snark; Caroline Jarvis; Dee Binder; Eddie French; Freddie de la Hay; Jenny Hedge; Jo Partlin; Marcia Light; Oedipus Snark; Terence Moongrove; William French
Writing Competition
The Telegraph are also running a writing competition, where entrants are challenged to write their own story in 20 weeks. The entries will be judged by
Sam Leith (editor), and the prize is lunch with the author himself, along with a signed copy of Corduroy Mansions.
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