I first became aware of Don Paterson’s poetry way back in 1994 , when as part of the Granta New Generation Poets, he did a reading in Aberdeen , along with fellow poets Kathleen Jamie, Mick Imlah,and W.N Herbert, at Ma Cameron’s Bar, the well known hostelry in the centre of the city. Billed as a night of ‘Poetry and Pints’, I attended , as I was interested in poetry, and liked a drink or two. At the time, I was also making inroads into my own amateurish attempts at poetry . Paterson’s work really grabbed my attention, and I could relate to it, in the same way as I could relate to the prose of James Kelman and William McIllvanney, poetry of the working class, of ordinary folk, rather than those from the halls of academe. The first poem in his collection ‘Nil Nil’. called ‘The Ferryman’s Arms’ grabbed my attention from the get go, it was about being in a bar drinking, how good was that? From then on I was hooked on Paterson’s work. Here was a guy who was the same age as me, writing about stuff I could relate to in my own life. Almost thirty years later, here’s ‘Toy Fights’, (now there’s an expression I recall from my own boyhood ), Paterson’s memoir of boyhood, which I have to say I can still relate to a lot of . His upbringing was quite similar in many ways to my own, albeit mine was in Aberdeen rather than Dundee. Some of memories are laugh-out loud funny, as he recalls things kids said back in those days e.g. ‘It is Sut’, rather that ‘It is Not’ , which I said fifty years ago at school. His recollection of his mental health issues is pretty harrowing, but part of his journey to becoming one of our finest writers. His evocation of the ’70s is absolutely spot on, and I laughed as I recalled the sweets (McCowan’s Egg and Milk chews) , the fizzy drinks (Cresta), the music( The Osmonds, Sex Pistols) wearing nylon pyjamas , all these things from those days , from ‘back in the day’. On page 59 he even describes his boyhood self as ‘a prince in polyester, a viscount in viscose’, which really made me laugh out loud, my ‘school trousers’ were polyester and viscose, bought from Marks and Spencer’s as my mum worked there. These things stick in your mind after all these years! Further to this, I was aware that Paterson is also a musician, and it was great to read about the music that inspired him, which had me looking out my old John Martyn and Robert Wyatt albums, and revisiting my jazz cds on the ECM label from Arild Andersen, John Abercrombie etc. A great evocation of yesteryear and one well worth reading !!