Irvine Welsh has chosen life

You wonder what Irvine Welsh wanted. Having sold more than six million books easily makes him one of the UK’s most successful literary novelists. And almost everyone knows of him – at least after you’ve explained that a film they have watched was based on a book that he wrote. An audience member at a recent talk asked about a scene from Trainspotting, saying: “I’ve not read the book – I apologise – so I’m not sure how involved you were with that, but I’d love to know how you came up with the scene, if you did.” In mid-August, when the Scottish writer’s latest novel, Can Nothing Save Us?, was released, billboards were still promoting the most recent reimagining of his first: Trainspotting: The Musical.