Trainspotting defined a generation and changed the face of British fiction. Published in 1993, Irvine Welsh’s debut novel burst on to the literary scene in all its dark, raw and exhilarating glory. Its cast of characters, including Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie, grapple with the meaning of life and heroin addiction in Edinburgh at the end of the 1980s – all told in a dazzling, funny and inventive vernacular style. Danny Boyle’s film of Trainspotting came out in 1996 and brought Welsh’s book to even larger international audiences. It has since sold well over a million copies in the UK alone and has been translated into more than 30 languages. Thirty years on, Vintage Classics is bringing out an anniversary hardback edition of this undeniable cult classic.
