Corduroy mansions

Corduroy mansions

About the project

Corduroy Mansions is the first online novel by Alexander McCall Smith, author of the popular No 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 by Andrew Sachs, who is best known as Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

The project is a collaboration between Telegraph Media Group, Little Brown Group and Polygon (the fiction imprint of Birlinn 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 novel 44 Scotland Street. The story was serialised in instalments every weekday through The 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 large Pimlico 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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