- Willy Russell, Read by Willy Russell

The Wrong Boy: Abridged edition

By Willy Russell, Read by Willy Russell
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The extraordinary first novel from the internationally acclaimed playwright.

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 Gran 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 flytrapping craze begins and, for Raymond and his Mam, nothing is ever quite so normal again.

Format: Audio-Book
Release Date: 11 Oct 2016
Pages: None
ISBN: 978-0-00-821308-4
Detailed Edition: Abridged edition
Willy Russell was born in Whiston, near Liverpool, and left school at fifteen. He worked as a ladies\' hairdresser for six years, stacked stockings at Bear Brand, cleaned girders at Ford, before getting into writing, first as a songwriter then as a playwright. He is the author of, amongst others, 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.

‘Willy Russell doesn’t read - he performs. With his Rochdale accent, flattened adolescent intonation, his whispering, jibbering and shouting, he fills the listener’s head - and creates Raymond, the real boy. It’s a remarkble performance and should be compulsory listening for those hot on tackling crime without trying to understand the causes of crime’. Rachel Redford, The Observer. -

”'His own dramatic reading is hypnotically compelling. I found scenes from the story still whirling round my head days after I had finished listening to it.” - Christina Hardyment, The Independent.