Irvine Welsh in Conversation at Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
By Sarah Morgan, July 2025
Mention the name Irvine Welsh, and what immediately springs to mind?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or are completely culturally unaware, then the answer is undoubtedly Trainspotting, his 1993 debut novel, which was turned into a hugely popular film three years later by director Danny Boyle.
It’s not, strictly speaking, a crime novel, but Welsh is nevertheless making his debut at the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this year. The organisers clearly think his involvement in the TV version of his 2008 novel Crime warrants his inclusion in the line-up, although the man himself isn’t so sure.
“I wrote Crime years ago,” explains Welsh. “The title was ironic. I thought it was an existential thriller about a cop who isn’t interested in petty crime. To him, serious crime is against a person, or something that terrorises a community.
“What happened is it got made into a TV series. The book was set mostly in Miami, but we didn’t have the money for that, so we blew up the small part set in Edinburgh and made that the focus.
“I admire plot-driven crime writers who can put the same character into a different story every year, but my mind doesn’t work that way; I’m more character than action-driven.”
Welsh then adds: “I’m not a great plotter, but if I get the characters right, they sort of write it for me.”
A bunch of blokes he clearly loves and who perhaps have a life of their own are Renton, Spud, Begbie and Sick Boy from Trainspotting. They did, in effect, change his life. Before the novel was a success, Welsh had had an unusual employment history, initially going down a conventional route.
“I wanted to write about something positive”
“I had a decent job and a couple of promotions and did an MBA,” he recalls. “Because I had a lot of adventures before that and did hard drugs, I thought I was on the path of righteousness, but I realised I was on another wrong path. So I got into acid house…”
He spent time on the club scene attempting to develop a music career, but according to Welsh, it wasn’t until Trainspotting’s acclaim that he became “one of the main men. It was great to have that seal of approval.” However, “the imposter syndrome never stops. The nature of being a writer is kind of like being an outsider – you’re the weirdo who has to go off and do their own thing.”
The novel inspired a prequel, Skagboys, and two sequels: Porno and Dead Men’s Trousers. Another, Men in Love, is due for release next week.
“There’s so much negativity in the world, so I wanted to write about something positive that unites us, and we all aspire to love,” says Welsh about his decision to return to his favourite characters.
“It struck me that we’re compelled by society to make big decisions in our twenties, like the jobs we do, who we live with, whether to have children and buy a house. I’m not even equipped to do that now, so I thought, ‘who’s even less equipped than me to make these decisions?’ And it was these four guys.”
Perhaps one of the reasons Welsh is continually drawn to the quartet is because they’re all facets of himself.
“When you’re a writer, all your characters are drawn from yourself,” he claims. “I don’t mean I’m like Begbie, but if you’re running for the train and the doors shut in your face, you’re suddenly full of rage. So emotionally, you have those moments in yourself, you’re just amplifying that.”
As for Trainspotting itself, it continues to have relevance. “It’s stayed this phenomenal thing. New generations pick it up and I get a bump in sales every few years. It was the first popular fiction book to deal with drugs and music. It was a cool book.”
Welsh is giving Renton and co a rest, at least for a while; his next book, due out in August 2026, “features all new characters and is set in Las Vegas.”
But don’t bet against their return – they’re so compelling, it would be a crime not to continue their journey.
images: Gerard Binks Photography
Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.
