Irvine Welsh

Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.3: Scottish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), J. Derrick McClure (University of Aberdeen), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Born 27 Sep 1961
Activity 1993-ongoing

Places

Born in Scotland
Active in Scotland; England

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Story-writer

Resources

Welsh's Works

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The novelist Irvine Welsh, born in Leith near to the docks and to the Hibernian Easter Road football ground in Edinburgh, claims to have been born in 1958, but others cite 1961, and one

Observer

article has even claimed the Glasgow police say his records show his birth year as 1951. Though he did not adapt the famous film of his first novel

Trainspotting

(1993), he has become a writer for screen, stage, and television.

Trainspotting

has been considered a landmark in contemporary culture by many critics. This is for a number of reasons: it created a new international literary bestseller that was distinctly Scottish; it had as great if not greater success in its adaptations as film and play; it was read in clubs and appealed to the chemical generation; it encouraged music shops to sell…

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2754 words

Citation: Childs, Peter. "Irvine Welsh". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 November 2004; last revised 24 January 2018. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5146, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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