Irvine Welsh

(born September 1958 -) - Leith, Edinburgh

Violent, loud, obscene; funny, honest, intelligent - Irvine Welsh’s literature is all this and more. Born into working-class Edinburgh, Welsh attended Heriot-Watt University in the city, where, it is said, he started writing his first and most famous novel Trainspotting. His portrait of young heroin users living on the edge of society – on the edge of life – was famously filmed in 1996.

Writing predominantly in Scots vernacular, and writing about issues which will be familiar to anyone growing up in working-class Scotland over the last few decades, his novels and short stories are nonetheless popular across the UK and further afield. Irvine Welsh is now a partner in a film production company, 4 Ways. Porno, is a sequel to Trainspotting, and in 2012 a prequel, Skagboys was published. As well as his novels, Welsh has written a number of short story collections, most recently Reheated Cabbage.

Irvine Welsh currently lives in Chicago with his second wife, Beth Quinn.

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  The Acid House
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  The Acid House presents a collection of short stories by Irvine Welsh. Using a range of approaches from bitter realism to demented fantasy, the stories cover a diverse range of subjects and are told in Welsh's distinctive style.
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  The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Troubled environmental health officer Danny Skinner is engaged on a quest to uncover what he refers to as the 'bedroom secrets of the master chefs'. To this end, he travels from Edinburgh to San Francisco, where he meets a strange nemesis in the form of Brian Kibby - but it is in his rival that Danny will find his destiny.
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  Crime
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  A novel about the corruption and abuse of the human soul and the possibilities of redemption, 'Crime' is a thrilling journey into the bright glamour of the Sunshine State and a seething underworld of utter darkness.
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  Ecstasy: Three Tales Of Chemical Romance
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Irvine Welsh is the controversial author of Trainspotting and The Acid House. With Ecstacy, Welsh presents three stories about love and drug culture.
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  Filth
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  In Bruce Robertson, Welsh has created one of the most corrupt, misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction, and has written a dark, disturbing and very funny novel about sleaze, power, and the abuse of everything.
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  Glue
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Glue is the story of four boys growing up in Edinburgh. Follow their lives from the 1970s to the new century, from punk to techno, from speed to Es, see each of them as they struggle to get away from the conditioning of class and culture.
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  If You Liked School, You'll Love Work
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Many questions are posed, and answered, in these five extraordinary stories: stories that remind us that Irvine Welsh is a master of the shorter form, a brilliant storyteller, and - arguably - one of the funniest writers in Britain.
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  Marabou Stork Nightmares
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Roy Strang is engaged in a odd quest to eradicate the scavenger bird, the Marabou Stork, before it drives away the flamingo from the Lake Torto in South Africa. But behind this world lies the world of Roy's bizarre family & his youthful life of brutality.
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  Porno
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  In the fag-end of his youth, Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson is back in his native Edinburgh to realise his dream of making a pornographic movie. 'Porno' is the sequel to 'Trainspotting'.
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  Reheated Cabbage: Tales Of Chemical Degeneration
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  Most of the stories in 'Reheated Cabbage' originally appeared in fugitive form in magazines and long out-of-print anthologies. Finally collected together, they show all Irvine Welsh's trademark skills.
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  Skagboys
  Irvine Welsh - Hardback - Jonathan Cape
  Mark Renton has it all, but there's no room for him in the 1980s. Thatcher's government is destroying working-class communities across Britian, and the post-war certainties of full employment, educational opportunity and a welfare state are gone. When his family starts to fracture, the only way out is heroin.
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  Trainspotting
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  'Trainspotting' is engaging, hilarious, and profane, riddled with drugs, drunks and bad behaviour and rich with fascinating and flawed characters. The interwoven stories of a group of friends and junkies, it is a dazzling, dislocated trip through the highs and lows of their lives, from wild nights out to terrible nights in.
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  Trainspotting
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage
  'Trainspotting' is engaging, hilarious, and profane, riddled with drugs, drunks and bad behaviour and rich with fascinating and flawed characters. The interwoven stories of a group of friends and junkies, it is a dazzling, dislocated trip through the highs and lows of their lives, from wild nights out to terrible nights in.
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  Trainspotting
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Vintage Books
  'Trainspotting' is hilarious, and profane, riddled with drugs, drunks and bad behaviour and rich with flawed characters. The interwoven stories of a group of friends and junkies, it is a trip through the highs and lows of their lives.
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  You'll Have Had Your Hole
  Irvine Welsh - Paperback - Methuen Drama
  From the author of Trainspotting comes this new play You'll Have Had Your Hole.

Bibliography

• Trainspotting - 1993
• The Acid House - 1994
• Marabou Stork Nightmares - 1995
• Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance - 1996
• Filth - 1998
• You'll Have Had Your Hole (drama) - 1998
• Glue - 2001
• Porno - 2002
• Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs - 2006
• If You Liked School You'll Love Work - 2007
• Crime - 2008
• Reheated Cabbage - 2009
• Skagboys - 2012

Books about Irvine Welsh

• Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting: A Reader's Guide - 2001
• Irvine Welsh for Starters - 2008