Irvine Welsh: In Conversation

Irvine Welsh was born in the great city of Edinburgh and matured in the housing schemes of Leith, West Pilton and Muirhouse.

Neither school nor conventional employment appealed, but he was inspired to write after experiencing the explosions of punk and rave first hand.Trainspotting, Welsh's debut novel, was rejected from the Man Booker Prize shortlist, allegedly for offending the judges.

It went on to sell over a million copies in the UK alone and was adapted into an iconic film by Danny Boyle, starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald.

Porno was adapted into T2: Trainspotting, a sequel that reunited the original cast and crew.Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud, the much-loved antiheroes of Trainspotting, inhabit a fictional universe based on Welsh's experience of an inner-city Scotland blighted by Thatcherism and drug abuse.

This universe has often been revisited in novels including Skagboys, The Blade Artist and A Decent Ride.

It has been augmented by iconic characters from subsequent books, like Juice Terry, Post Alec, Jonty McKay and, trying to keep them (and themselves) in order, wayward cops Bruce Roberson and Ray Lennox, both of whom were played to devastating effect by James McAvoy in the film Filth, and on TV by Dougray Scott in Crime.'General Admission + Book' tickets include a copy of Irvine Welsh's new book, Can Nothing Save Us, which will be available collect at the event.