The Dog Who Came in from the Cold

Last updated

The Dog Who Came in from the Cold
The Dog Who Came in from the Cold.jpg
Author Alexander McCall Smith
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesCorduroy Mansions
SubjectThe inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions
Genre Fiction
Publisher Polygon
Publication date
7 Aug 2010
Media typeHardback
Pages312
ISBN 978-1-84697-161-7
Preceded by Corduroy Mansions  
Followed by A Conspiracy of Friends  

The Dog Who Came in from the Cold is the second online novel by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. In the first series, the author wrote a chapter a day, starting on 15 Sep 2008, the series running for 20 weeks and totalling 100 episodes. The daily chapters, read by Andrew Sachs were also available as an audio download. The second and third series were published online, running from Monday 21 September 2009 and Monday 13 September 2010, respectively. [1]

Contents

Episodic writing

The concept for The Dog Who Came in from the Cold is based on Charles Dickensepisodic writing – which were novels serialised through journals in weekly or monthly instalments, in the 1800s. Following a meeting with acclaimed San Francisco novelist Armistead Maupin, 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 and its successors was released online, readers had the opportunity to interact with each other and the author himself through online discussion boards. This was edited by the Daily Telegraph staff.

The project is a collaboration between Telegraph Media Group, Little Brown and Polygon (the fiction imprint of Birlinn Ltd).

Plot

The story is set in a fictional housing unit in London nicknamed Corduroy Mansions, and details the lives of the inhabitants of the large Pimlico house and others.

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, and William French.

The chapters for this book in The Telegraph ran from 21 Sept 2009 until 19 Dec 2009.

Book three in the series, A Conspiracy of Friends, ran from 13 Sept 2010 until 17 Dec 2010.

Related Research Articles

Ngaio Marsh New Zealand crime writer and theatre director (1895–1982)

Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966.

<i>The Pickwick Papers</i> 1837 novel by Charles Dickens

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with Sketches by Boz published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour, and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise. On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in The Atlantic writes, “Literature” is not a big enough category for Pickwick. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call “entertainment.” Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of The Pickwick Papers popularised serialised fiction and cliffhanger endings.

Lynda La Plante, CBE is an English author, screenwriter and former actress, best known for writing the Prime Suspect television crime series.

Alexander McCall Smith British/Zimbabwean writer and academic

Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a British writer, raised in Southern Rhodesia and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on related British and international committees. He has since become known as a fiction writer, with sales in English exceeding 40 million by 2010 and translations into 46 languages. He is known as the creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. "McCall" forms part of his surname.

Chapter (books) Section of text in a book

A chapter is any of the main thematic divisions within a writing of relative length, such as a book of prose, poetry, or law. A chapter book may have multiple chapters that respectively comprise discrete topics or themes. In each case, chapters can be numbered, titled, or both. An example of a chapter that has become well known is "Down the Rabbit-Hole", which is the first chapter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<i>Colonel Sun</i> Novel by Kingsley Amis

Colonel Sun is a novel by Kingsley Amis published by Jonathan Cape on 28 March 1968 under the pseudonym "Robert Markham". Colonel Sun is the first James Bond continuation novel published after Ian Fleming's 1964 death. Before writing the novel, Amis wrote two other Bond related works, the literary study The James Bond Dossier and the humorous The Book of Bond. Colonel Sun centres on the fictional British Secret Service operative James Bond and his mission to track down the kidnappers of M, his superior at the Secret Service. During the mission he discovers a communist Chinese plot to cause an international incident. Bond, assisted by a Greek spy working for the Russians, finds M on a small Aegean island, rescues him and kills the two main plotters: Colonel Sun Liang-tan and a former Nazi commander, Von Richter.

<i>Dumb Witness</i> 1937 Poirot novel by Agatha Christie

Dumb Witness is a detective fiction novel by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 July 1937 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year under the title of Poirot Loses a Client. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.

The Sunday Philosophy Club is a series of novels by the author Alexander McCall Smith. It is also the name of the first novel in the series, and an informal talking group founded by the main character Isabel Dalhousie. The series is set in Edinburgh.

Christopher Catherwood, is a British author based in Cambridge, England and, often, in Richmond, Virginia. He has taught for the Institute of Continuing Education based a few miles away in Madingley and has taught for many years for the School of Continuing Education at the University of Richmond. He has been associated each summer with the University of Richmond's History Department, where he is its annual summer Writer in Residence, and where most of his recent books have been written.

Barry Turner (author) British writer and editor (born 1937)

Barry Turner is a British writer and editor.

James Clancy Phelan Australian writer

James Clancy Phelan, known professionally as James Phelan, is an Australian writer of thrillers and young adult novels, including Fox Hunt, The Last 13 series for teens, and the Jed Walker and Lachlan Fox thrillers. He has also written short stories and the non-fiction book Literati.

Tim Villiers Heald FRSL was a British author, biographer, journalist and public speaker.

Serial (literature) Publishing format by which a single literary work is presented in contiguous instalments

In literature, a serial is a printing or publishing format by which a single larger work, often a work of narrative fiction, is published in smaller, sequential instalments. The instalments are also known as numbers, parts or fascicles, and may be released either as separate publications or within sequential issues of a periodical publication, such as a magazine or newspaper.

<i>Corduroy Mansions</i>

Corduroy Mansions is the first online novel by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. In the first series, the author wrote a chapter a day, starting on 15 Sep 2008, the series running for 20 weeks and totalling 100 episodes. The daily chapters, read by Andrew Sachs were also available as an audio download. The second and third series were published online, running from Monday 21 September 2009 and Monday 13 September 2010, respectively.

Jeremy Duns is a British author of spy fiction and the history of espionage. Born in Manchester, he now resides in Åland.

Kate Williams (historian) British historian

Kate Williams is a British historian, author, and television presenter. She is a professor of public engagement with history at the University of Reading.

<i>A Conspiracy of Friends</i> Book by Alexander McCall Smith

A Conspiracy of Friends is the third online novel by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. In the first series, the author wrote a chapter a day, starting from 15 September 2008, and the series ran for 20 weeks, totalling 100 episodes. The daily chapters, read by Andrew Sachs, were also available as an audio download. The second and third series were published online, running from Monday 21 September 2009 and Monday 13 September 2010, respectively.

<i>Dickensian</i> (TV series) British drama television series

Dickensian is a British drama television series that premiered on BBC One from 26 December 2015 to 21 February 2016. The 20-part series, created and co-written by Tony Jordan, brings characters from many Charles Dickens novels together in one Victorian London neighbourhood, as Inspector Bucket investigates the murder of Ebenezer Scrooge's partner Jacob Marley.

<i>Adèle and Co.</i> 1931 novel by Dornford Yates

Adèle and Co. is a 1931 comic novel by the English author Dornford Yates, featuring his recurring 'Berry' characters. This was Yates's first full-length Berry novel, following several earlier Berry short story collections. It was the first Berry book to be published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, and not to be serialised in The Windsor Magazine.

<i>Safe Custody</i> 1932 novel by Dornford Yates

Safe Custody is a 1932 novel by the English author Dornford Yates. It was serialised weekly in five parts in The Saturday Evening Post in October and November 1931 as "Your Castle of Hohenems", illustrated by F. R. Gruger.

References