Celebrated lawyer to the Taffia at 45, found dead on a Cardiff garage forecourt at 55 at Christmas 2021, pinballing from homeless shelter to dry-out hostel to prison to street-sleeping in the intervening decade, when not tormenting his wife, mother, children and others, Sophie Calon’s father’s story is a lesson in how alcoholism corrodes a soul and a family as much as it is her searing story of estrangement and healing. It is nonetheless also a lesson, despite everything, in how to be a father, as mentor, cheerleader, critic and counsellor, and as much a lesson in how to escape, survive and understand family instability and family pain. Sophie’s father blazes across this memoir, undimmed, and her book glows with energy, vivacity, insight, wit, if not forgiveness. There is not a spot of self-pity here. No wallowing, no exonerating. It’s a burning building of a book: its flames call to be braved, but in the end the inevitability is all-consuming, although in the ashes Sophie finds materials with which to rebuild.

Maeve McClenaghan, author of No Fixed Abode, says: 'Searing and poetic, Sophie Calon's prose sparkles in this elegiac, gripping memoir. By piecing together fragments of his writing, Calon poignantly charts her father's gradual slip into homelessness. This painfully personal tale explores the complex, knotty truths of loving someone drowning in addiction. Long Going draws you in and takes you on a journey. Calon is an immensely readable writer to watch.'

Gwyneth Lewis, author of Nightshade Mother and Sunbathing in the Rain, says: 'Sophie Canon’s heartbreaking portrait of her alcoholic father combines a clarity about the selfishness of addiction with a deeply loving portrait of a generous, energetic and joyful person. It’s also a vivid portrait of growing up in Cardiff. This portrait pulls no punches but is, at the same time, profoundly life-affirming. Everyone who has an alcoholic in the family should read this book for its compassionate awareness of the damage and chaos caused by addiction, while never forgetting the humanity of the person caught in that trap. A wonderful book.'

James Canton, author of Grounded and Director of the Wild Writing MA at the University of Essex, says of it: ‘Hugely impacting and searingly honest, Sophie Calon's work is a powerful piece of memoir: bold, bruising and yet beautiful. A delight.’

Jessica Andrews, author of Milk Teeth and Saltwater, says: 'Sophie Calon’s writing is deeply real and moving – she is a talent to watch.'