Lesley is an acquaintance of Rent Boy’s who has a traumatic experience when her infant child Dawn dies while she and some friends are high on heroin. Although Matty declares that Dawn died of sudden infant death syndrome, Lesley still feels guilty, and the incident also weighs heavily on Sick Boy, who was mostly likely Dawn’s father. Lesley remains troubled for the rest of the novel, overdosing in an apparent suicide attempt and ending up on life support.
Lesley Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Lesley or refer to Lesley . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Kicking
Quotes
Ah never wanted anything mair in ma life than fir her tae stoap screamin.— The bairn’s away . . . the bairn’s away. . . Dawn. . . oh my god. . . oh fuckin god, wis aboot aw ah could pick ootay the horrible sound. She collapses oantae the threadbare couch.
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Lesley Character Timeline in Trainspotting
The timeline below shows where the character Lesley appears in Trainspotting. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Kicking
...with some friends, including Sick Boy, Spud, and Matty, when they hear a loud noise. Lesley comes into the room screaming about how Dawn is “away.” Everyone gets angry at her...
(full context)
...supply down the toilet if they don’t have to. Matty suggests that since Dawn was Lesley’s kid, maybe it’s her responsibility to take care of everything. Spud disagrees and says Lesley...
(full context)
Matty changes his mind and says Lesley isn’t a bad parent and heroin didn’t have anything to do with it. He says...
(full context)
Kicking Again
Rent Boy realizes too late that “dawn” will remind everyone of “Dawn,” Lesley’s child who died. Sick Boy was likely the father. Sick Boy doesn’t acknowledge the awkwardness...
(full context)
Blowing It
...days pass, and Rent Boy starts slowly feeling a little better. He heard recently that Lesley is on life support after an overdose. He runs into Johnny Swan at the club,...
(full context)
Exile
...news report about a baby that died of cot death, which makes them think of Lesley’s dead baby, Dawn.
(full context)
