Irvine Welsh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Irvine Welsh
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Welsh at the 2004 Edinburgh International Book Festival
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| Born | 27 September 1958 (age 66) Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Alma mater | Heriot-Watt University (MBA) |
| Genre | Novel, play, short story |
| Notable works | Trainspotting (1993) The Acid House (1994) Marabou Stork Nightmares (1995) Filth (1998) Glue (2001) Skagboys (2012) A Decent Ride (2015) |
Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish writer known for his novels and short stories. His most famous work, Trainspotting, was published in 1993. This book was later made into a popular film. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed short films.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Irvine Welsh was born in Leith, which is a port area in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born in 1958. When he was four, his family moved to Muirhouse, another part of Edinburgh, where they lived in local housing schemes. His mother worked as a waitress. His father was a dock worker who later became a carpet salesman. Welsh was 25 when his father passed away.
Welsh left Ainslie Park High School at 16. He then studied electrical engineering. He started working as an apprentice TV repairman. After an electric shock, he decided to try other jobs. In 1978, he moved to London to join the punk rock music scene. There, he played guitar and sang in a band called Stairway 13. He later worked for Hackney Council in London and studied computing.
In the late 1980s, Welsh returned to Edinburgh. He worked for the city council in the housing department. He then went on to earn an MBA degree from Heriot-Watt University.
His Books and Stories
Irvine Welsh has written many books, including eleven novels and four collections of short stories.
His first novel, Trainspotting, came out in 1993. It tells the stories of a group of friends in the mid-1980s. The book explores their lives and friendships in Edinburgh. When it was released, it received strong reactions, both positive and negative. It was later turned into a play and a film in 1996, directed by Danny Boyle. Welsh even had a small role in the movie.
After Trainspotting, Welsh released The Acid House, a collection of short stories. Many of these stories are set in the same areas as Trainspotting and explore similar themes about life in those communities. Welsh later adapted three of these stories into a film where he also appeared.
His next novel, Marabou Stork Nightmares, tells two different stories. One is about life in Scotland, and the other is an imaginative adventure set in South Africa.
In 1996, he published ...: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. This book contains three separate novellas. One is a funny story about classic British romance novels. Another is a story about seeking justice. The third is a gentle romance between a young woman and an older clubgoer.
His novel Filth (1998) is narrated by a police officer and his tapeworm. The main character is a policeman with a difficult personality. This novel was also made into a film in 2013.
Glue (2001) returned to the settings and style of Trainspotting. It follows the lives of four characters over many years, showing the strong connections that keep them together.
Welsh also contributed a novella called Contamination to a book called The Weekenders: Travels in the Heart of Africa. He also wrote a short story for the One City collection in 2005, which helped a charity in Edinburgh.
In 2012, Welsh released Skagboys, which is a prequel to Trainspotting. It's a series of connected short stories that also comment on British politics at the time. It looks at how the decline of industries affected young working-class people.
His eighth novel, The ... Lives of Siamese Twins, came out in 2014. His ninth novel, A Decent Ride, was published in 2015 and featured a character named 'Juice' Terry Lawson from his earlier book, Glue.
Welsh's tenth novel, The Blade Artist (2016), focuses on a character named Francis Begbie, who seems to have changed his life and is living in California. This book was nominated for a literary award.
A sequel to The Blade Artist, called Dead Men's Trousers, was released in 2018. It brings back characters like Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Francis Begbie.
In 2021, his book Crime was adapted into a TV series in the UK. It starred Dougray Scott as detective Lennox. Welsh worked on this project with Dean Cavanagh. This was the first time one of Welsh's books was made into a TV series. A second season has also been made.
Film and Stage Work
Besides writing books, Irvine Welsh has also written several plays for the stage. These include Headstate, You'll Have Had Your Hole, and a musical called Blackpool.
He co-wrote a play called Babylon Heights with his writing partner Dean Cavanagh. This play was first performed in San Francisco and then in Dublin. It's about the funny things that happen behind the scenes with the actors who played the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. The play used oversized sets to make regular actors look small.
Cavanagh and Welsh have also worked together on screenplays for films. One of their screenplays, The Meat Trade, is based on real events from the 19th century.
They also wrote Wedding Belles, a film for Channel 4 that aired in 2007. This film follows the lives of four young women. Wedding Belles was nominated for an award and was sold to TV channels in other countries.
Welsh has also directed several short films for music bands. In 2001, he directed a 15-minute film for the band Gene's song "Is It Over". In 2006, he directed a short film for the song "Atlantic" by the band Keane.
In 2007, Welsh directed his first short dramatic film, NUTS, which he co-wrote with Cavanagh. The film is about a man dealing with a serious illness.
In 2008, Welsh co-directed a part of the documentary film The New Ten Commandments.
In 2009, Welsh directed the film Good Arrows with Helen Grace. Welsh and Cavanagh wrote the film, which is about a darts player who loses his skill due to sadness.
Writing Style and Themes
Welsh's writing often explores what it means to be working class and Scottish, especially from the 1960s to today. He writes about life in council housing areas, the challenges people face, low-paying jobs, and being out of work. He also explores topics like sectarianism, football, and the humor and ideas of Scottish people.
His novels often share characters, making it feel like they exist in a "shared universe." For example, characters from Trainspotting might appear briefly in other books like The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Filth, and more significantly in Glue.
Welsh is known for writing in the Edinburgh Scots dialect. He writes the words as they sound when spoken, rather than using traditional literary Scots. He also likes to experiment with how text looks on the page. In his novel Filth, the thoughts of a tapeworm are shown on top of the main character's thoughts, which helps show the tapeworm's strong influence.
Personal Life
Irvine Welsh married Beth Quinn in 2005, and they divorced in 2018. They lived together in Chicago, USA, from 2009. Before that, he lived in Dublin. In 2018, he was living in Miami, USA.
In 2022, he married Emma Currie, who is an actor and the sister of musician Momus.
Welsh is a big fan of the football club Hibernian F.C. and supports Scottish independence.
Adaptations of His Work
Film
- Trainspotting (1996)
- The Acid House (1998)
- Irvine Welsh's ... (2011)
- Filth (2013)
- T2 Trainspotting (2017)
- Creation Stories (2021)
- The Blade Artist (To be announced)
Theatre (selected)
- Glue
- Filth
- Trainspotting
- Marabou Stork Nightmares
Television
- Irvine Welsh's Crime
Images for kids
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Welsh at the 2004 Edinburgh International Book Festival
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Irvine Welsh in Warsaw, 2006
