Novel characters' names go up for auction, with proceeds supporting torture survivors

Renowned authors including Margaret Atwood, Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan are putting up for auction the chance to name a character in their next novels. The initiative has been taken to raise funds to support people who have survived torture.

Those interested can take part in the auction and buy the opportunity to name a character in the authors' next novels. The author will use the name of the highest bidder, or a name of their choice, for a character in the novel.

The auction has been organised to mark the tenth anniversary of a charity called Freedom from Torture. The organisation's literary festival will be held at the London Library on 11 November. Writers and people who have survived torture will take part, with a poetry competition and literary readings on the programme.

More than 75 writers, poets and artists are supporting the festival. The auction will also include artwork by Quentin Blake, a rare book of Mary Wollstonecraft's stories illustrated by William Blake, and the chance for book club members to meet author Louise Doughty. There will also be a raffle of more than 30 bookmarks designed by authors, each accompanied by a book signed by the relevant author.

A poetry competition has been organised at the festival on the experiences of people who survived torture. Its judges will be Booker-winning author Alan Hollinghurst and poet Rachel Allen.

Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, is also taking part in the auction. She has been involved in this initiative since 2006, although at first she was somewhat hesitant about giving a stranger the chance to choose the name of a character in her novel.

Chevalier said that a character's name is very important to her, because she has to think about a character for years. But she was happy to use the name of Laura Devine, the winner of the first auction, for a circus worker character in her novel, and later a friendship grew between them.

In Chevalier's view, people should have the freedom to express their own painful experiences in their own language. She said, 'I am also an immigrant. But no one ever questioned my right to stay here. Because I am white and American.'

Samuel Morton, an official of the organisation, said the trend of weakening the legal protection of asylum seekers in Britain and other European countries is concerning. It could put people fleeing torture at risk of being returned to the hands of their torturers.

Samuel Morton said that the basic legal protection of people who survived torture should not be weakened for political advantage.

At the literary festival to be held at the London Library on 11 November, writers and torture survivors will take part together. Through the poetry competition, literary readings and the auction, the festival will carry the message of standing beside people who have suffered torture.