Choose the name of an Andy McNab villain for £10,000

The BBC reports that a bidder paid £10,000 to name the villain in Andy McNab's next novel:

The villain in author Andy McNab's next novel will be named by a charity bidder who has paid £10,000 for the privilege.

The former SAS man auctioned off the right to name the character at a gala dinner in London which raised £61,700 for the Shackleton Foundation charity.

The charity has been set up in memory of Polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton to support projects with the adventurer's "pioneering spirit".

The Shackleton Foundation will provide a bursary fund "for inspirational leaders determined to make a difference in their field, in particular to the less advantaged".

McNab, who refuses to be pictured, said: "Shackleton has always been a hero of mine and I think the foundation's mission to identify similarly inspiring leaders in today's world is excellent."

The winner, whose identity is not known, has yet to provide the name for McNab's villain.

Get Andy McNab on your mobile...

From today's Guardian:

Andy McNab, the former SAS man turned bestselling author, plans to hunt for new readers of his next book via mobile phones.

Posters advertising Crossfire, his latest novel out next month, will invite mobile phone users to request by text the first chapter, to be downloaded in audio or text version to their phones. They can also use the PayPal system to order the print version of the whole book.

McNab's pursuit of a new readers follows a trial this year when the paperback version of his book Recoil was available to order on mobiles.

Although that experiment generated only modest sales, McNab's technology partner, Spoken Entertainment, hopes mobile shopping will soon become more established. It points to the emergence of flat-rate internet charging plans for mobiles, which could encourage more people to use handsets to read and shop online.

McNab and Spoken Entertainment are also testing the market with a range of made-for-download audio stories. From next month, fans of the author can go to his web or mobile site and download 20-minute tales from the Spoken from the Front collection.

According to his website, these stories are already available:

Listen to Andy McNab's brand new series Spoken From The Front. This series of hard hitting spoken stories written and introduced by McNab have been developed especially for download, either directly to mobile phones or from the internet. The series is based on the experiences of soldiers fighting on the front line.

Go here to purchase the audio (£2.00 per story).