Ealing resident Mr R M Morello has being corresponding with a great many people recently infact his pen has scribed far and wide to everyone from world leaders to nudist clubs!

Under this guise local author Duncan McNair has created an hilarious collection of correspondence, in the tradition of Henry Root, from the manic pen of the nation's most deranged letter writer. He is ready to tackle every nook and cranny of modern life.

Mr. Morello is a slightly confused, pear-shaped 45 year old Italian immigrant living with his larger, plump wife Mrs. Morello and three children – Tosti, Amphora and Rizzo – in that most salubrious of London suburbs: Ealing. As a family, they share a curious fondness for all things British and yet by dint of their Italian heritage, struggle to come to terms with some of our more esoteric characteristics.

As such, the ever-inquisitive Mr. Morello, a fastidious and prodigious letter writer, takes it upon himself to correspond with the great institutions and individuals of our fine nation – from Tony Blair, The Lord Chancellor, Richard Branson, and the Archbishop of Canterbury to Gordon Ramsay and The Bank of England, The Guild of Professional English Butlers and Debenhams to Arsenal Football Club – in an attempt to have his seemingly endless list of quandaries answered by the experts and, at times, in vain attempts to secure employment for his idling children.

These hilarious letters, composed in Mr. Morello’s bizarre English-Italian hybrid vernacular, and plethora of responses from the great and not so good, follow a long and successful tradition of prankish correspondence, as pioneered by Lazlo Toth, Henry Root and more recently Robin Cooper’s ‘Timewaster Letters’. A good-natured exploration of British customs and idiosyncrasies, written with gentle and generous humour, The Morello Letters is that rarest of commodities: a humour book that is actually very funny.

The author Duncan McNair was born in 1955 the youngest of 7 children. His late father Robin was a renowned Battle of Britain fighter pilot. His mother is descended from a Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Lords Lieutenant of Ireland.

At school Duncan was the Middlesex swimming champion. After Bristol University, where he was an occasional visitor to the law library but also Vice President of the Debating Union, Duncan qualified as a solicitor and practises commercial litigation as a partner in a Central London law firm. He has frequently appeared in the national media discussing issues of topical legal interest including those arising from cases he has conducted.

Duncan has contributed to various legal publications but "The Morello Letters" is his first humour title. Duncan began writing the Morello letters to the great and the good, and everyone else, over 10 years ago. He read them out loud with their replies for fun to his numerous nephews and nieces, whose parents asked him to send them more for themselves and their friends.

Duncan has been heavily involved in various charitable causes. He was a co-founder of a major public school and its legal adviser and Head of Fundraising.