ANYONE who doubts the validity of the old saying "There's nowt as strange as Lancashire folk" should pick up a copy of a wonderful new book, The Straggling Town.

As well as having the best Christmas laugh since Barry Pilton's One Man and His Bog, you'll instantly recognise the characters you can find in any Lancashire town or village.

Phil Smith, who is 59 and lives at Cliviger, in east Lancashire, is the man who put together The Century Speaks, the nostalgia series which had Radio Lancashire and GMR Radio listeners hanging on to every word.

In the series, Lancashire folk -- including many from Bolton -- talked to a tape recorder about their lives and their memories.

Phil Smith did the research and wrote the script that linked it all together. And he also wrote a book of the same title which became a best seller.

His new book, however, is pure imagination -- but based very much on real characters who are instantly recognisable.

Everyone will know a Bag o' Nails, who always believes the worst is going to happen. Or Red Eileen, "the scourge of malekind".

And Jurassic Jeff with "a belly like a full beer barrel and tattoos of such striking belligerence that everywhere he goes is declared a war zone."

The stories are told with such pure genius you'll be laughing into the New Year.

The Straggling Town is published by Carnegie of Lancaster at £10.

To coincide with the book, Phil is reading six more of his stories on Radio Lancashire on Sundays at 11.15am, repeated Wednesdays at 2.30pm.