Irvine Welsh
The award-winning Scottish writer Irvine Welsh speaks to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about his era-defining 1993 debut novel, Trainspotting.
The award-winning Scottish writer Irvine Welsh speaks to Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, about his era-defining 1993 debut, Trainspotting.
Following a non-linear plot and written in Scots and Scots English, the novel is more of a collection of interconnected stories told from multiple viewpoints, all centred around a group of friends, who have become household names - Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie - as they battle, among other things, heroin addiction, poverty, and a burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis. The novel had sold well over a million copies in the UK by the year 2015 and has been translated into thirty languages. The novel was turned into a 1996 film, often described as a modern classic, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Kelly Macdonald. This episode was recorded at the Edinburgh International Books Festival in August 2026.
Producer: Dominic Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a 麻豆社 Audio Scotland production.
On radio
Broadcasts
- Sun 6 Sep 2026 16:00麻豆社 Radio 4
- Sun 13 Sep 2026 00:15麻豆社 Radio 4
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