Strange tales here we come

Paint A Vulgar Picture - Fiction Inspired by The Smiths, edited by Peter Wild, Serpent’s Tail; £8.99

SOME girls are bigger than others and some books are better than others. It was a great idea — get a ten tonne truck-load of writers, some well known, some not so well known, and commission from each a piece ‘inspired’ by a Smiths song.

Now, everybody has a Smiths song that they really love or hate, or both. But composing a worthwhile story, no matter how loosely based, on one of their songs is, unfortunately, a light that never comes on.