'A classic of its kind.' - William Boyd'Thought-provoking, hilarious, sardonic and scarily brilliant.' - Scotsman 'A work of dazzling craft.' - Times Literary Supplement 'A memoir in a million.' - Sunday Times

Don Paterson was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1963. He spent his boyhood on a council housing estate.

When he wasn't busy dreading his birthdays, dodging kids who wanted to kill him in a game of Toy Fights, working with his country-and-western singer dad, obsessing over God, origami, sex or Scottish football cards, he was developing a sugar addiction, playing guitar and descending into madness. While he didn't manage to figure out who he was meant to be, the first twenty years of his life - before he took a chance, packed his guitar and boarded a train to London - did, for better or worse, shape who he would become.

'A book that swan-dives into the filthy waters of growing up and resurfaces clear-eyed, bearing pearls.' - Financial Times 'Paterson is arguably Scotland's finest writer at work today, his sense of the absurd is acutely honed, his wisdom hard-won.' - The National 'Wonderful, aggressively wise and always - especially at its most serious - devastatingly funny.' - Geoff Dyer