June 19, 2001

Welsh is Scottish

Irvine Welsh did a reading at Book People last night, which I attended. He signed all three of my books: "Trainspotting," "The Acid House," and "Glue," his newest. It was great to hear him read aloud from the new book, and doing all his characters' voices, although it was easier to understand when I read along. I grew up watching nothing but BBC programs, and I thought I was pretty good at understanding all manner of UK accents. Without the book, however, I would have been lost. Lurvely accent, though. People were asking him about all of his writing, and I commented that "Bad Blood," which functions as a self-contained short story within "Trainspotting," is one of the best stories I have ever read. "The Acid House" is also really good. My two favorite stories are "Disnae Matter" and "Snuff." Diabolically clever!

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