A unique auction will offer bidders the chance to be immortalised as a character in upcoming books by Dartmouth Park novelists Tracy Chevalier and Julian Barnes.

Ham & High: Award winning writer Tracy Chevalier is also taking part in the unique auction. Picture: Nigel SuttonAward winning writer Tracy Chevalier is also taking part in the unique auction. Picture: Nigel Sutton (Image: � Nigel Sutton email pictures@nigelsuttonphotography.com)

The authors are among 17 literary heavyweights who are donating a character in a future novel or short story to raise money for the UK medical charity Freedom from Torture.

Ms Chevalier, author of international best-seller The Girl with the Pearl Earring, said: “I am holding open a place in my new novel for Mrs (ideally a Mrs), a tough-talking landlady of a boarding house in 1850s Gold Rush-era San Francisco.

“The first thing she says to the hero is ‘No sick on my stairs. You vomit on my floors, you’re out.’

“Is your name up to that?”

Mr Barnes, who won the Booker prize for The Sense of an Ending in 2011, said: “We hope it will intrigue to name a character after yourself – or a friend – and see what happens when you turn that name over.”

Other writers taking part include Margaret Atwood, Ian McEwan, Pat Barker, Will Self, Sebastian Faulks, Zadie Smith, Kathy Lette, Joanna Trollope and Hanif Kureishi.

To place a bid visit freedomfromtorture.org/fullstop.

The auction will take place on November 20.