Short stories commissioned for London's royal parks

The Guardian reported this today:

Peter Pan flew across Kensington Gardens, Joseph Conrad was inspired to write The Secret Agent by a bomb plot in Greenwich Park and Henry James's characters held many an exquisitely nuanced conversation strolling through them. Now a group of contemporary authors including Will Self, Ali Smith and William Boyd are set to sprinkle a little more literary stardust on London's eight royal parks with a series of short stories set in – and sold from – the capital's grandest green spaces.
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The other contributors to the series are Darkmans author Nicola Barker (Greenwich Park), short story writer Clare Wigfall (St James's Park), Lebanese author Hanan Al-Shaykh (Kensington Gardens) and novelist Sheena Mackay (Richmond Park). Al-Shaykh's story will be published in a bilingual English/Arabic edition.

A lovely idea, and very welcome! The stories will be printed on recycled paper and sold from the park shops, as well as bookshops. What next? Swimming pool stories? Fish'n'chip shop stories? I hope so. Read the full Guardian article here.

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