Richard Gwyn was born in Pontypool on 22 July, 1956 and grew up in Crickhowell, Brecon-shire. After several years of self-abuse and heartache, he left London and spent the 1980s travelling, much of it recorded in his memoir, The Vagabond's Breakfast, which won a Wales Book of the Year award in 2012. In 2005 he achieved bestseller status with his first novel, The Colour of a Dog Running Away (Parthian, 2005), which has since been translated into eight languages. Richard has since written two other novels, including The Blue Tent, and is the author of four collections of poetry, the most recent of them being Stowaway: A Levantine Adventure (2018).