Novel immortality for sale

Atwood: Author of The Handmaid's Tale

A charity auction on Tuesday offers the chance to star in new books by writers like Margaret Atwood, Robert Harris, Ian McEwan or Terry Pratchett.

Nine top writers, three of them Booker prize winners, will name characters in their next novels after the highest bidders at the auction.

Harris: Says his writing career was a "fluke"

The sale, in aid of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, will be hosted by Kathy Lette, who proved last year's most popular author.

Last year Shelaine Green paid £6,200 for the opportunity to be written into Mad Cows author Lette's book.

This year fans of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, who won the 2000 Booker Prize for The Blind Assassin can get their chequebooks out.

Also on offer are a place in the 1995 Booker winner Pat Barker's work in progress or that of this year's Booker nominee and past winner Ian McEwan.

Smith: Won six awards for her debut novel White Teeth

Nice Work author David Lodge has been listed twice for the Booker and his latest novel Thinks is already proving popular.

Robert Harris, who wrote the novel on which the film Enigma was based and whose novels Fatherland and Archangel sell in millions, is also offering his services.

Cult fantasy writer Terry Pratchett - the UK's all-time best-selling novelist - is also willing to write a fan into his next book for a price.

Award-winning White Teeth writer Zadie Smith, best-seller thriller writer Ken Follett and American author Raymond Benson, who has taken up writing original James Bond stories round out the list.

Pratchett: His Bromeliad series is to be filmed

Authors Terry Pratchett and David Lodge are expected to attend this second such sale held in aid of the Medical Foundation.

Last year's sale, featuring Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby, Louis de Bernieres, Hanif Kureshi and Jim Crace raised nearly £25,000.

The Medical Foundation was established in 1985 to provide medical treatment, practical assistance, counselling and psychotherapy to victims of torture and organised violence.