Panic on the Streets

Such classic songs asPanic,Suffer Little Children, andRusholme Ruffianshave made The Smiths synonymous not only with mordant humor and lovelorn tales of alienation, but also with tales that are specifically and unmistakably located in the British Isles. Phill Gatenby, author ofMorrissey's Manchester, explores the worlds of Morrissey’s formative years, and The Smiths’ brief but extraordinary heyday, in a book that acts as both a guide and a revealing insight into the lyrical inspirations of The Smiths’ enigmatic singer. This is the way to explore the England of Morrissey and The Smiths—an extraordinary, incomparable amalgam of the 1980s and earlier eras.