Irvine Welsh

(born September 1958 -) - Leith, Edinburgh

Irvine Welsh

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.

  • Cover scan of The Acid House
    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.
  • Cover scan of The Bedroom Secrets Of The Master Chefs
    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.
  • Cover scan of Crime
    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.
  • Cover scan of Ecstasy
    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.
  • Cover scan of Filth
    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.
  • Cover scan of Glue
    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.
  • Cover scan of If You Liked School, You'll Love Work -
    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.
  • Cover scan of Marabou Stork Nightmares
    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.
  • Cover scan of Porno
    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'.
  • Cover scan of Reheated Cabbage
    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.
  • Cover scan of Skagboys
    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.
  • Cover scan of Trainspotting

    £5.99
    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.
  • Cover scan of Trainspotting
    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.
  • Cover scan of Trainspotting
    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.
  • Cover scan of You'll Have Had Your Hole
    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

Books about Irvine Welsh

  • Cover scan of Irvine Welsh For Starters
    Irvine Welsh For Starters - Willy Maley - Paperback
    Providing an entertaining and cutting-edge introduction to one of the most important contemporary authors, 'Irvine Welsh for Starters' discusses issues and matters raised in novels such as 'Trainspotting', 'Ecstasy', 'Filth' and 'Glue.'
  • Cover scan of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting
    Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting: A Reader's Guide - Robert A. Morace - Paperback
    This series gives readers accessible and informative introductions to 30 of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential contemporary novels. Each contain a biography of the novelist and a full-length study of the novel.