% cat mylist.py

class MyList:
    def __init__(self, start):
        #self.wrapped = start[:]               # copy start: no side-effects
        self.wrapped = []                      # make sure it's a list here
        for x in start: self.wrapped.append(x)
    def __add__(self, other):
        return MyList(self.wrapped + other)
    def __mul__(self, time):
        return MyList(self.wrapped * time)
    def __getitem__(self, offset):
        return self.wrapped[offset]
    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.wrapped)
    def __getslice__(self, low, high):
        return MyList(self.wrapped[low:high])
    def append(self, node):
        self.wrapped.append(node)
    def __getattr__(self, name):           # other members--sort/reverse/etc.
        return getattr(self.wrapped, name)
    def __repr__(self):
        return `self.wrapped`

if __name__ == '__main__':
    x = MyList('spam')
    print x
    print x[2]
    print x[1:]
    print x + ['eggs']
    print x * 3
    x.append('a')
    x.sort()
    for c in x: print c,

% python mylist.py
['s', 'p', 'a', 'm']
a
['p', 'a', 'm']
['s', 'p', 'a', 'm', 'eggs']
['s', 'p', 'a', 'm', 's', 'p', 'a', 'm', 's', 'p', 'a', 'm']
a a m p s