Irvine Welsh eBooks

Irvine Welsh was born in Scotland, where his most famous book takes place. As a child Welsh grew up in the poor housing units of the port area of Edinburgh. He took a lot away from these memories and turned them into a career.

His book, Trainspotting, became an instant hit, and has acquired a cult following. This was his first novel and was published in 1993. Three years later a very powerful and moving movie was adapted directly from the book with the same title. The movie went on to much success, much like his book did.

The book and the movie portray the lives of several people living in the poor housing units of Edinburgh. The book takes relating short stories of each character and intertwines them all with the rifts in friendships, the debilitating use of heroin, and the boredom and violence of living in the housing units. Most critics agreed that it was the best thing that could happen to Edinburgh and many other areas of Scotland at the time. It revealed a side of Edinburgh, that many were unaware of, or wanted to keep covered up. After this book, there was no covering up the problems that were there.

Welsh has gone on to write other books and screenplays, while living in Dublin, Ireland and then in Chicago, Illinois. He lives with his second wife and has said that he lives an upper-class life where he gets to write and stare out the window, all the while being able to pick up at a moment’s notice and dash off to a film festival if he wants to.