The subcultural enfant terrible of devolutionary protest and rebellion, Irvine Welsh is now widely acknowledged as the founding father of a whole new tradition in post-devolution Scottish writing. The unprecedented worldwide success of Trainspotting, magnified by Danny Boyle's iconic filmadaptation, revolutionised Scottish culture and radically remoulded the country's self-image from dreamy romantic hinterland to agitated metropolitan hotbed. Though Welsh's career is very much an ongoing phenomenon, his influence on contemporary Scottish literary history is already quiteindisputable and enduring. | The Edinburgh Companion to Irvine Welsh by Berthold Schoene, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters