Irvine Welsh

Many people first encountered the work of Irvine Welsh via the adaption of his debut novel, Trainspotting (1993), into the stylish and audacious second feature film by director Danny Boyle. Welsh's chronicle of the lives of Scottish heroin addicts was followed by a collection of linked short stories, The Acid House (1994), several of which Welsh adapted for the film version. Welsh continued writing books, several of which were best sellers, as well as TV movies and made forays into directing and playwriting. His use of Scottish dialect and use of dashes instead of quotation marks did not deter readers who made many of his books best sellers, and in 2012, his Trainspotting prequel, Skagboys, was published.