The wrong boy

The Dewsbury Desperadoes are on their way to Pontefract for a gig at the Allied Butchers' & Architects' Club.

The Girl with the Chestnut Eyes is on her way to somewhere. And Raymond is heading for Gulag Grimshy. 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: '1 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; 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 Flytrapping craze begins and, for Raymond and his mam, nothing is ever quite so normal again.

In Raymond, prize-winning and internationally acclaimed playwright Willy Russell has created an unforgettable character to rival his Shirley Valentine and educated Rita.

The Wrong Boy is his extraordinary first novel.