Irvine Welsh

Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, a port area in northern Edinburgh, Scotland, that serves as the setting for many of his works. He grew up in public housing, and his mother worked as a waitress while his father worked as a dock worker and died when Welsh was young. In the 1970s, Welsh moved to London and sang in punk bands. He returned to Edinburgh in the 1980s for his MBA. Soon after, he began publishing stories in small, independent journals; eventually these stories would become part of Trainspotting. The full novel came out in 1993 and was an immediate success, with the 1996 film adaptation bringing even greater attention to Welsh’s work. While his debut remains his best-known work, Welsh has also received acclaim for his other works, which include over dozen novels, several short story collections, and a few plays and screenplays. A newspaper article published shortly before the wide release of the film Trainspotting called some aspects of Welsh’s early biography into question, suggesting in particular that a police report listed his birth year as 1951, not 1958. Welsh currently lives in London and Edinburgh, spending winters in Miami Beach.