CORDUROY MANSIONS - Book 1 In the Corduroy Mansions series of novels, set in Londons hip Pimlico neighborhood, we meet a cast of charming eccentrics, including perhaps the worlds most clever terrier, who make their home in a handsome, though slightly dilapidated, apartment block. Corduroy Mansions is the affectionate nickname given to a genteel, crumbling mansion block in Londons vibrant Pimlico neighborhood and the home turf of a captivating collection of quirky and altogether McCall-Smithian characters. Theres the middle-aged wine merchant William, whos trying to convince his reluctant twenty-four-year-old son, Eddie, to leave the nest and Marcia, the boutique caterer who has her sights set on William. Theres also the justifiably much-loathed Member of Parliament Oedipus Snark his mother, Berthea, whos writing his biography and hating every minute of it and his long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara, a literary agent who would like to be his wife but, then, shed like to be almost anyones wife.