McEwan, Pullman and Tremain in character auction

Ian McEwan, Philip Pullman [pictured] and Rose Tremain are among the authors offering bidders the chance to be named as a character in their upcoming books.

Organised by human rights charity Freedom from Torture, the Immortality Auction will see 15 "literary heavyweights" donate character naming rights to auction winners in a bid to raise money for survivors of torture.

Also participating are Eleanor Catton, William Boyd, Tracy Chevalier, Chris Cleave, Jonathan Coe, Martina Cole, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Louis de Bernieres, Esther Freud, Linda Grant, Michael Morpurgo and Maggie O'Farrell.

Bidders will be able to place their bids online at the auction's website from 3rd November ahead of the live auction, which will take place on Thursday 17th November hosted by comedian and author Alexei Sayle.

All proceeds will go directly towards helping survivors of torture rebuild their lives through UK human rights charity Freedom from Torture which has centres in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.

McEwan said: “This auction offers the genuine opportunity of an afterlife. More importantly, bidding in the Freedom from Torture auction will help support a crucial and noble cause. The rehabilitation of torture survivors cannot be accomplished without expertise, compassion, time - and your money.”

De Bernières said: “Torture degrades the perpetrator as much as the victim, disclosing the bestiality in the former as much it reveals the contingency of the latter. When we have got rid of it, and finally made it inconceivable, we shall have taken one step nearer to the right to call ourselves human. The winner of this auction will have their chosen name used for a character in my next novel.”