Long Going

by Sophie Calon

"A moving and thought-provoking account of an impossible situation." Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin

At 50, Sophie Calon's father was a high-flying lawyer. At 55, he was found dead in Cardiff city centre at Christmas. Meanwhile he had pinballed between tents, homeless shelters, and prison cells. His story is a lesson in how alcoholism can consume a person – and a family.

Long Going is a powerful, unflinching memoir that sings with Calon's love for her eccentric, witty father while recounting his drink-fuelled disintegration. In telling his story, Calon explores her family's instability and pain as well as her own survival.

"This portrait pulls no punches… 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." Gwyneth Lewis, author of Nightshade Mother

"Hugely impacting and searingly honest, Sophie Calon's work is a powerful piece of bold, bruising and yet beautiful." James Canton, author of Grounded

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

"Searing and poetic, Sophie Calon's prose sparkles in this elegiac, gripping memoir. Draws you in and takes you on a journey. Calon is an immensely readable writer to watch." Maeve McClenaghan, author of No Fixed Abode

251 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2025

Reviews

[Matthew Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very likely to be my book of 2025. The author has a beautiful way with words, each moment along what could be seen as a sad journey was expertly crafted. Although there were of course emotional moments throughout the book Calon handles them with such grace that you really don’t want to finish the book. I found that I read the last third of the book a lot slower than the first 2/3 only because I wasn’t ready for it to end.

[gracie rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, devastatingly honest, and sensitive

so so excited to talk about the book with sophie tomorrow. i love welsh authors - really touching to read a memoir set across places i know so well, a real feeling of sonder knowing that complicated lives were unfolding all around me and i think i will see those places very differently now

sophie’s tone is so personal and intimate, this book is incredibly brave and i’m so grateful she wrote it

lots of moments of putting it down to take a big sip of tea and process, the way any good book should be


updated post book club - listening to sophie talk about her family was beautiful, i think she’s so incredible - ‘compassionate but not tolerant’ stuck out so much

[Nikila Cranage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. Sophie’s writing is beautiful. Poignant, poetic and moving- she reveals her life through these impactful vignettes that are packed full of imagery and emotion. For me, what resonated most was how she describes her relationship with her sister. I could see my own sisters in how Sophie and Bee interacted, the fierce loyalty and how they continually carved out a sanctuary for one another despite the surrounding trauma and chaos. One of her dad’s wisdoms that Sophie shares is ‘see the beauty’- this book is part of that beauty!!

[Isabelle moon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I might have read my favourite memoir of the year and were only in January! So beautifully written and the depiction of alcoholism/ addiction was done so well, you can tell it’s a topic very close to the authors heart!

(Don’t usually rate non fiction but putting 5⭐️ on Goodreads to hopefully help this spread to a wider audience!)

[Anna Bevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘how irreplaceable we are to those who love us’

i truly, deeply, and sorely ached reading this memoir - sophie shares her story with extraordinary delicacy and quiet devastation, inviting us into her world shaped by love, fracture, and unspoken truths. i went to the same school as sophie and her siblings; i knew of the family well, as so many of us did, and yet this book lays bare the unsettling reality that familiarity is not the same as knowing.

this book stands as a testament to the forces that can splinter families and those that, against all odds, hold others together - to the lives and struggles unfolding in brutal plain sight. reading about the places and people i, too, grew up among lends the narrative an even sharper weight. it compels a reckoning with the lives around us, with the silences people carry and the secrets they conceal from others and from themselves.

this is a powerful, haunting memoir - one that will stay with me, and one i know i will think of whenever i walk through caerdydd. fy nghartref, ein cartref.

rest in peace, mike.

[Richard Seymour · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pre-ordered and read this the day before father's day, of all days. I am far from being a literary critic but as a dad, a Cardiffian, and, in a funny way, as a lawyer, it was such a moving read; it's very raw and honest and yet it is crafted with such grace. The author's style and pace of writing is fitting with the subject, but it is a delight in it's own way.

There is a tough line that I think we could all learn from, which I hope the author doesn't mind me sharing, "I'm thinking I need to be extra kind to everyone I meet, in case they've also just buried their dads".

I whole heartedly recommend a read.

[Nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary debut. There is so much care in the prose - yet it's so punchy and poignant with movement and a real sense of place wherever the writer is. Sophie Calon is a hugely talented author. The best of anything I've read in 2025.

[Elisabeth Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, moving read

[Myfanwyyy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elder daughter - Wales - Elite university - Bookclub - Addiction - Grief