From Trainspotting to Porno
If you fancy an evening in the company of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, then head to the South Bank next month.
Welsh reads from his new novel Porno and discusses the book afterwards at a special event at the Royal Festival Hall on 19 September.
Porno revisits the Trainspotting crew, still scheming and scamming ten years down the line.
Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson is back in his native Edinburgh after a long spell in London. Having failed spectacularly as a hustler, pimp, husband, father and businessman, Sick Boy taps into an opportunity, which to him represents one last throw ...
Welsh, 41, who grew up in the heart of Edinburgh's working-class district of Muirhouse, left school at 16 and drifted to London during the punk movement of the 1970s. He returned to Scotland in the 1980s and published his first work in 1994, a collection of short stories entitled The Acid House.
His first novel, Trainspotting, published a year later about a group of losers and junkies on a path to self-destruction, catapulted him to success. Welsh gained mainstream and cult success and a Booker nomination. The book was later made into a hit film, launching Ewan McGregor's movie career.
When asked what drives him to write he said: "There isn't one thing and one moment. But when I was 16 I was out pissed on the town with three friends. Only two of us came back alive.
"Ever since then I've been trying to make sense of things..."
Irvine Welsh
Chelsfield Room
Level 5
Royal Festival Hall
Thursday, September 19, 7.30pm.
Tickets: £6 (concs £3.50)
Box office: 020 7960 4242
