An intriguing insight into the mind of a writer
A good writer knows how to read a room and tells stories that make people sit up and notice.
Irvine Welsh is one of those people, armed with a sharp wit, a creative mind and an ability to make characters and situations that get the pulse raising and perk people's attention.
The acclaimed author was the main event act at the Wolverhampton Literature on Sunday, holding court over a sold out Georgian Room at Wolverhampton Art Gallery keen to hear from the Scottish novelist and playwright.
He was in Wolverhampton to talk about his new novel "The Long Knives" the next instalment of his acclaimed crime trilogy, ably assisted by book lover and fan Robin Ince.
While Irvine spoke about the book in terms of his process for it how it had translates to television, he was just as happy talking about his process as a writer, saying one of the first things he did was to annoy himself and challenge himself with his characters
This, according to Irvine, came partly from how some of his characters could reflect him through different characteristics, with some being a reflection on him.
Robin Ince kept the chat flowing with a mixture of questions he'd prepared himself, as well as questions from authors such as Ian Rankin, going into details of the characters and their back story, as well as the plots going forward.
With any chat with Irvine Welsh, the chat soon turns to past glories, and Irvine was happy to talk about "Trainspotting", the novel written in 1993 which spawned a film franchise and lifted the careers of Ewen McGregor, Jonny Lee Millar, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle.
He said the film had turned him into a popstar through so many people discovering who he was, which he struggled with initially as he wondered why the attention hadn't come before, but saying it was lucky he hadn't followed that lifestyle as he might not still be here, with the temptations on offer.
He also said that while he didn't live in Scotland any more, he still found himself seeing people and characters and wondering how they would transpose back to Scotland.
With a link to the area, Irvine also paid tribute to his cousin Martin, who had moved from Leith in Edinburgh to Wolverhampton, joking that Leith had become up-market and Wolverhampton had gone down hill and wondering if the two were linked.
He said his outlook on fiction was about creating characters as he didn't find himself interesting enough to write non-fiction and said part of what interested him was seeing how people messed up and their reaction to it, which fitted some of the characters in Trainspotting.
He also spoke about how he kept a work ethic of getting the work done, but also being able to switch off, saying his wife would tell him to come down and speak to dinner guests and to leave his "imaginary friends" alone for a bit, while also noting that not being able to switch off before had ended a previous marriage when he was writing "Filth".
A long and detailed chat, the conversation between Robin Ince and Irvine Welsh flowed, with those in attendance hanging on his every word.
He ended by saying that the great bit about books was that the reader controls the off-switch and if someone is making the film in their head, they can switch it off whenever they wanted.
