'The title of Dominic Gordon’s debut book, Excitable Boy: Essays on Risk, is borrowed from the 1978 song by American musician Warren Zevon. The excitable boy in this memoir – the author – is not as bad as the rapist and murderer in the song, but nor is he good. He’s a thief and a drug addict. An illegal graffiti artist, brawler and glory hole-user, sex club and brothel regular. He’s a film buff who loves crime thrillers because he wants to emulate the criminals he sees on screen.' (Introduction)