It's all for One as top city writers join up to fight social problems

Published on Friday 25 November 2005 12:19

THREE of Edinburgh's most famous authors have written short stories inspired by the Capital for a new book aimed at tackling the city's social problems.

Irvine Welsh, Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin have written "long shorts" for the book, which also has an introduction by the city's adopted daughter JK Rowling.

All proceeds from the book, which will only be available in Edinburgh bookstores, will go to the OneCity Trust, set up last year to promote social welfare and tackle poverty and inequalities within Edinburgh.

To boost sales further, the three authors have agreed to take part in a special launch which will see them answer questions put by Kirsty Wark.

Called One City, the book features three very different views of Edinburgh, befitting the different styles of the authors. Alexander McCall Smith, who found fame through his best-selling series of novels about Botswanan detective Precious Ramotswe, centres his story on a newcomer who arrives from Delhi and sees the Capital through the eyes of an outsider.

With neither friends nor family in the city, the homesick biologist soon finds out some startling things about his new home.

Ian Rankin, whose Inspector Rebus novels account for one in ten crime novels sold in the UK, drew inspiration for his story from this summer's Homeless World Cup in Princes Street Gardens. His tale sees two players become entangled in a magical world during the event.

Irvine Welsh shot to fame when his hit novel Trainspotting, about the lives of heroin addicts in Edinburgh, became the most shop-lifted book in Britain.

The subsequent movie cemented his fame, and the author has recently been working on his own screenplay Meat Trade, based on the story of Burke and Hare.

But his One City story sees him take a departure, setting it in the Murrayfield and Roseburn area,

with a tiger causing mayhem.

All three authors are ambassadors of the OneCity Trust, a partnership between the city council and the Scottish Community Foundation.

And the book also features a very personal introduction from the world's best-selling author Rowling, who gives a thoughtful account of her move to Edinburgh and her life here.

Keeping with the city connection, the book is to be published by Edinburgh company Polygon.

A spokeswoman for the event said: "What could have been a fairly dry collection has turned into a very humorous and entertaining one, and one which fans of all three will want to devour."

The writers will be in conversation with Kirsty Wark at Ottakar's on George Street on December 9.