Toy Fights

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