The modern writer who has influenced me the most

Brilliant dialogue writing...as exciting as any gangster story of modern politics

One of its chief delights is that it contains so many of its author'sbest anecdotes, his choicest performances

I like the combination of its far-reaching quality and the minute precision with which his thoughts are charted

All the writing in this volume demonstrates Bruce Chatwin’s loathing of the humdrum, the dreary, the predictable. What attracted him was the unusual, the weird and wonderful… the journalist in him (strongly present) knew a good story when it heard one

As one reads it one cannot forget it was compiled by a uniquely gifted writer in the face of death, urgently pinning down experiences important to him. All that might suggest a scrapbook, but as a legendary traveller and observer of people Chatwin had more to put into his than most

(An) admirable literary experiment

A caustic and darkly humurous satire

A page-turner... Trainspotting gives lies to any cosy notions of a classless society

The Scottish Celine

One of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force

Welsh has certainly described the world surrounding Edinburgh's underground drug movement with a most amazing intimacy