The Wrong Boy

The hilarious, bittersweet novel from the playwright behind EDUCATING RITA, SHIRLEY VALENTINE and award-winning musical BLOOD BROTHERS.Dear Morrissey,I'm feeling dead depressed and down. Like a streetlamp without a bulb or a goose at the onset of Christmas time.Anyroad, I thought I'd pen a few lines to someone who'd understand...It's 1991. Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. Only lately, he's been feeling dead down. His dad left home after falling in love with a five-string banjo. His fun-hating grandma believes she should have married Jean-Paul Sartre: 'I could never read his books, but y' could tell from his picture, there was nothing frivolous about John-Paul Sartre.' Felonious Uncle Jason and Appalling Aunty Paula are lusting after the satellite dish.And so he turns to the one person who'll understand what he's going through: Morrissey. Told through a series of heartfelt letters to the frontman of The Smiths, this is a laugh-out-loud funny, incredibly poignant tale from a character you can't help but love.'Big-hearted, wonderfully funny and engrossing' THE MIRROR'A warm, funny, poignant story. I loved The Wrong Boy - and so will you' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'A comic masterpiece' BEL MOONEY, MAIL ON SUNDAY

From the Inside Flap

The extraordinary first novel from the prize-winning and internationally acclaimed playwright and creator of Shirley Valentine and Educating Rita. In Raymond Marks, he brings us another unforgettable character.Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. His dad left home after falling in love with a five-string banjo; his fun-hating grandma believes she should have married Jean-Paul Sartre: ?I could never read his books, but y? could tell from his picture, there was nothing frivolous about Jean-Paul Sartre.? Felonious Uncle Jason and appalling Aunty Paula are lusting after the satellite dish; frogs are flattened on Failsworth Boulevard; and Sickening Sonia?s being sick in the majestic cathedral of words. Raymond Marks is a normal boy, from a normal family, in a normal northern town. Until, on the banks of the Rochdale Canal, the fly-trapping craze begins and, for Raymond and his ?Mam?, nothing will ever be normal again.

From the Back Cover

“A comic masterpiece.” -- Mail on Sunday“A warm, funny, poignant story. I loved The Wrong Boy -- and so will you.” -- Sunday Telegraph

About the Author

Willy Russell was born near Liverpool, and left school at fifteen. He worked as a ladies’ hairdresser for six years, stacked stockings at Bear Brand and cleaned girders at Ford, before getting into writing, first as a song-writer then as a playwright. He is the author of the multi-award winning plays – later made into films – Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine, and the award-winning West End musical hits Blood Brothers and John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert. He and his family live in Liverpool.

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