Set in the author's native Swansea in South Wales the ten autobiographical stories in this
much-loved collection chart his journey from boyhood - movingly and at times comically evoked
in tales such as 'The Peaches' and 'A Visit to Grandpa's' - to early adulthood. Along the way
in 'Extraordinary Little Cough' among others the vicissitudes of adolescence and a burgeoning
sexuality are explored with characteristic tenderness and candour while 'Where Tawe Flows' and
'One Warm Saturday' affectionately document the evolution of the young writer's literary
sensibility. Young love male friendship death religion - the gamut of youthful experience is
here encapsulated inflected throughout with Thomas's typical humanity. First published in 1940
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog has proven to be second only in popularity to the
author's masterpiece Under Milk Wood demonstrating that Thomas was as much a master of prose
as he was of poetry. Included in this volume is the complete body of fiction produced by the
Welsh poet in his short and turbulent life.
