The quality of the writing is remarkable... The best book I have read so far this year… a masterpiece of memoir writing. It also scared the shit out of me… a truly remarkable story and written seemingly without an ounce of self-pity…. [contains] some of the finest descriptions of illness I have ever read… on a par with Hilary Mantel's recent Ink in the Blood or Joan Didion's writing about grief in The Year of Magical Thinking. Fabulous. A masterpiece... Best book I have read so far this year (*****)" :Scott Pack meandmybigmouth.typepad.com Read Full Review

Brutally honest, poetic and sometimes funny account... brave, original and strangely compelling. Morning Star

Lacking in self-pity, Gwyn is determined to take the chance to spend what could be his final days studying the trajectories of life, the importance of family and friends, the appreciation of art and the salience of beauty in the natural world.

It's not the ground-breaking work some reviewers have claimed it as and sometimes the philosophising gets a bit much.

But it's a brave, original and strangely compelling book and one that very quickly won this reader over.

Compelling. babylonwales.blogspot.com

After The Vagabond's Breakfast, Welsh writing is not going to be the same. More strength to Gwyn, the ultimate survivor. Peter Finch

Spicy and compelling mix of memoir and philosophy . . . a coherent and stylishly literate account . . . a book to remember.The Western Mail

Gorgeously written, funny and shocking. I loved it! @Eleanor Conway

Gwyn writes himself into being, takes us through a Madame Tussauds thronged with addicts, misfits, lovers, all the extreme people who may (or may not) have been part of his past... non-linear, pensive and polished, part essay, part monologue, and yet another sign that Welsh writing is going through a healthy period.... Lloyd Jones, New Welsh Review

Blake's "Proverbs of Heaven and Hell" tells us that the road of excess leads to the gates of the palace of wisdom. He doesn't mention the damage - self-inflicted or random - along the way. Richard Gwyn's memoir – his own down-and-out vagabondage around the Mediterranean – rectifies these lacunae and takes us on a terrifying, funny, and erudite journey through alcoholism, insomnia, and liver disease to a redemptive and self-accepting wisdom. It's one hell of a good read.Des Barry