Any Lengths to Please

Any Lengths to Please is a uniquely entertaining compendium by BAFTA-nominated screenwriter and acclaimed novelist Paul A. Mendelson. A short story, a novella, a medium-sized novel and a brief literary ‘confection’, designed to whet any appetite. The shortest, Einstein, is a quirky love story, set in New York State, about a young woman finding her Mr Wrong. I Can’t be Ill, I’m a Hypochondriac is a semi-autobiographical and wryly poignant tale about the effect on a family when a member is diagnosed with a serious cancer. It tells how life and work don’t stop – they just become infinitely more fraught. Lost Souls, the novel, is a laugh-out-loud, larger-than-life fable. It tells of how the scuzziest guy in LA, a soulless, dissolute ‘porn’-broker, has to find love in five days with the kindest, least-worldly soul around, a scruffy Lake District shepherdess, or go straight to Hell! A Perfect Murder Story, a brief ‘confection’, is told entirely in letters from a script-editing agency to a would-be scriptwriter. But what sort of plot does the fledgling scribe really have in mind?