An independent publishing house has urged Morrissey to write his autobiography and release it through them.

In an open letter, Lee Brackstone, editor of Faber, said “destiny commands” the former Smith star to align himself with the company.

“You see, we love the perverse and the contrary at Faber,” he wrote. “And we also like to think we are the custodians of twentieth-century Modernist poetry.

“In fact we are. Our shelves groan and bulge and spill over under the weight of Ezra, Larkin, Hughes and Heaney.

“And that’s just the surface; deep as it may seem. We feel very strongly that you belong in this company.

“To me (and to many of my colleagues) you are already in this company.”

Brackstone signed off by saying he hoped the letter could mark the start of a “beautiful friendship”.

Morrissey first revealed plans to write his memoirs in 2008.

In an interview on BBC Radio 2, he said he hoped his autobiography could shed new light on the “crap” that “is written about me”.

(by Jason Gregory)