Author Mark's help for Oxfam
Northampton-born writer Mark Haddon has become one of a group of well-known authors to donate a short story to Oxfam in a bid to fight global poverty.
Haddon came to fame when he put autism in the spotlight with his novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
He will donate short story The Island to be included in Oxfam's Ox-Tales, published on July 4.
Ox-Tales will include, in four volumes, the work of 38 popular UK authors such as John Le Carr, Alexander McCall Smith, Joanna Trollope, Ian Rankin, Rose Tremain, Helen Fielding and Jonathan Coe.
Haddon, who went to school in Rutland, revealed he found the name of his best-known work while browsing through books in an Oxfam store.
He said: "I got the title of 'curious incident' whilst browsing through my own copy of the Oxford Book of Quotations - look under 'dog' in the index if you're interested - I owe this book a lot of drinks."
The Ox-Tales series is part of Oxfam's first annual bookfest, which will see hundreds of venues across the UK celebrating books with events between July 4 and 18.
The charity said the event, which will also include an appearance at a Nottingham Oxfam shop by American writer Brenda Maddox, aims to fight poverty through reading.
Author Joanna Trollope said: "Oxfam is such a good way to buy books, which are, after all, for sharing. Why would we writers write them, after all, if it weren't to communicate?"
Caroline Jackson, Oxfam area manager, said: "Oxfam sells 1.6m of books per month - enough to buy 50,000 emergency shelters, safe water for 2.1 million people, or 64,000 goats."
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