A Conspiracy of Friends

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Book by Alexander McCall Smith

LanguageEnglish

SeriesCorduroy Mansions

SubjectThe inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions

A Conspiracy of Friends

Author	Alexander McCall Smith
Language	English
Series	Corduroy Mansions
Subject	The inhabitants of Corduroy Mansions
Genre	Fiction
Publisher	Polygon
Publication date	1 May 2011
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Hardback
Pages	368
ISBN	978-18469-7182-2
Preceded by	The Dog Who Came in from the Cold

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.^[1]

The concept for the Corduroy Mansions series is based on Charles Dickens’ episodic writing, novels that were 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).

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 13 September 2010 until 17 December 2010.

References

↑ The Daily Telegraph

v t e Novels by Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency	The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (1998) Tears of the Giraffe (2000) Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001) The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002) The Full Cupboard of Life (2003) In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (2004) Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006) The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007) The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008) Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009) The Double Comfort Safari Club (2010) The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party (2011) The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection (2012) The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (2013) The Handsome Man's De Luxe Café (2014) The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine (2015) Precious and Grace (2016) The House of Unexpected Sisters (2017) The Colours of all the Cattle (2018) To the Land of Long Lost Friends (2019) How to Raise an Elephant (2020) The Joy and Light Bus Company (2021) A Song of Comfortable Chairs (2022) From a Far and Lovely Country (2023)
Professor Dr von Igelfeld Entertainments	Portuguese Irregular Verbs (1997) The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs (2003) At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances (2003) The 2½ Pillars of Wisdom (2004) Unusual Uses for Olive Oil (2011) Your Inner Hedgehog (2021)
The Sunday Philosophy Club	The Sunday Philosophy Club (2004) Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (2005) The Right Attitude to Rain (2006) The Careful Use of Compliments (2007) The Comfort of Saturdays (2008) The Lost Art of Gratitude (2009) The Charming Quirks of Others (2010) The Forgotten Affairs of Youth (2011) The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds (2012) The Novel Habits of Happiness (2015) At the Reunion Buffet (2015) Sweet, Thoughtful Valentine (2016) A Distant View of Everything (2017) The Quiet Side of Passion (2018) The Geometry of Holding Hands (2020) The Sweet Remnants of Summer (2022) The Conditions of Unconditional Love (2024)
44 Scotland Street	44 Scotland Street (2004) Espresso Tales (2005) Love Over Scotland (2006) The World According to Bertie (2007) The Unbearable Lightness of Scones (2008) The Importance of Being Seven (2010) Bertie Plays the Blues (2011) Sunshine on Scotland Street (2012) Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers (2013) The Revolving Door of Life (2015) The Bertie Project (2016) A Time of Love and Tartan (2017) The Peppermint Tea Chronicles (2019) A Promise of Ankles (2020) Love in the Time of Bertie (2021) The Enigma of Garlic (2022) The Stellar Debut of Galactica MacFee (2023)
Corduroy Mansions	Corduroy Mansions (2009) The Dog Who Came in from the Cold (2010) A Conspiracy of Friends (2011)
Paul Stewart	My Italian Bulldoze (2016) The Second Worst Restaurant in France (2019)
Detective Varg	The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists (2019) The Department of Sensitive Crimes (2019) Varg in Love (2019) The Talented Mr. Varg (2020) The Man with the Silver Saab (2021) The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf (2023)
Other novels	La's Orchestra Saves the World (2008) Trains and Lovers (2012) The Forever Girl (2014) Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party (2014) Emma: A Modern Retelling (2015) The Good Pilot, Peter Woodhouse (2017) The Pavilion in the Clouds (2022) The Private Life of Spies (2023) The Love Story of Herb la Fouche (2024)
Adaptations	The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (TV series) (2008) The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (radio series) (2004–2019)
Related	Alexander McCall Smith bibliography

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