Watching the Fire Eater Mohammed Bennis

Watching the Fire Eater Mohammed BennisFormer Arts Council of Wales Book of the Year From Copacabana to urban Yorkshire, from New Mexico to a Welsh funfair, from The Netherlands to the Clare coast, Robert Minhinnick's world is a shrinking one. Its cast of characters includes Rio beach beggars, Madison Avenue literati, saloon bar poolsters and millionaire scrap merchants. These essays cover a variety of subjects: third world poverty and the internationalism of alcohol, rugby through the

'The author stood for the European Parliament on the slogan 'It's a big trough and I want to get my nose in it

at times pitiless but still fun

bent by bundles of wood

and Yusuf Abu Rayya from Egypt

and New York City

Mohammad al-Harthi

including Denial and Festival

wherever they are

who extend back proudly through past the Civil War in America on one side

as if his look brought the handles back to the doors

Anna Crowe

"Fast becoming Wales’ answer to Irvine Welsh