Playwright Willy Russell, creator of "Shirley Valentine", "Educating Rita" and "Blood Brothers", is publishing his début novel, The Wrong Boy. In it, angst-ridden teenager Raymond Marks is made a scapegoat by his headmaster after a childish game is misinterpreted. He tells his story, by turns funny and heartbreaking, in letters written to his idol, Morrissey, the singer from The Smiths.

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..."Raymond came about because my son Rob was heavily into The Smiths and Morrissey. I wrote the first page or two just to amuse Rob and his mates. But the second I came up with the character, I realised I had somebody in whom I was very interested. It's liberating to work within that kind of adolescent voice, because it's so self-consumed, and yet it's not arrogant.

"I came to Morrissey and The Smiths rather late. Like lots of people I first heard Morrissey drifting from my son's bedroom, and thought `What a morbid caterwauler.' Then one day Rob played a tape and I heard it properly for the first time. It was "Frankly Mr Shankly", and I realised what a witty writer Morrissey was, and that his mordant stance belies a truly original wit. I do find him hysterically funny.

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