Leith-born Irvine Welsh is one of Scotland’s most popular authors, having short to fame with his debut novel Trainspotting in 1993.
He’s about to publish his 14th novel, Resolution, and has also written, or co-written, a further six books of short stories, 10 screeplays and three stage plays.
Many of his books have been turned into films, including two Trainspotting movies, Filth, The Acid House and Ecstasy.
And when he’s not writing he’s also dabbled in directing and is an in-demand DJ.
For those who are wondering where to start when it comes to Welsh’s bibliography, thousands of readers at book website Goodreads have been busy reviewing everything he’s ever written.
Here are their 10 most highly-rated books.
1. Dead Men's Trousers
With an average rating of 4.18 from 4,212 reviews, it will perhaps surprise many to see Dead Men's Trousers top the list of Irvine Welsh's highest-rated books on Goodreads. Published in 2018, it follows characters from his novel Trainspotting - centering on Mark Renton. "An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life. He’s then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he’d been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and – much to Mark’s astonishment – doesn’t seem interested in revenge." | Contributed
2. Trainspotting
Just pipped to the top spot, with an average rating of 4.10 from 167,947 reviews is the book that catapulted Irvine Welsh to international stardom. Published in 1993, Trainspotting quickly became a publishing phenomenon - thanks in part to Danny Boyle's film that brilliantly wove some of Welsh's evocative short stories about Edinburgh heroin addicts into a single narrative. Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, Tommy and Diane are now woven into Scotland's cultural tapestry forever. | Contributed
3. Skagboys
Another book based on the lives of the characters from Trainspotting comes third - with Skagboys earning an average rating of 4.05 from 16,443 reviews. The 2012 is a prequel to the original adventures of Mark Renton and co. "Mark Renton has it all: He's good-looking, young, with a pretty girlfriend and a place at university. But there's no room for him in the 1980s.Thatcher's government is destroying working-class communities across Britain, and the post-war certainties of full employment, educational opportunity and a welfare state are gone. When his family starts to fracture, Mark's life swings out of control and he succumbs to the defeatism which has taken hold in Edinburgh's grimmer areas. "The way out is heroin. It's no better for his friends. Spud Murphy is laid off from his job, Tommy Lawrence feels himself being sucked into a life of petty crime and violence - the worlds of the thieving Matty Connell and psychotic Franco Begbie. Only Sick Boy, the supreme manipulator of the opposite sex, seems to ride the current, scamming and hustling his way through it all. Skagboys charts their journey from likely lads to young men addicted to the heroin which has flooded their disintegrating community." | Contributed
4. Marabou Stork Nightmares
Welsh's experimental 1995 book Marabou Stork Nightmares has an average rating of 3.91 from 12,234 reviews. "Roy Strang is engaged in a strange quest in a surrealist South Africa. His mission is to eradicate an evil predator-scavenger bird, the marabou stork, before it drives away the peace-loving flamingo from the picturesque Lake Torto. But behind this world lies another: the world of Roy's bizarre family, the Scottish housing scheme in which he grew up, his mundane job, a disastrous emigration to Africa, and his youthful life of brutality with a gang of soccer casuals. As one world crashes into the other, this potentially charming story of ornithological goodwill mutates into a filthy tale of violence, abuse and redemption." | Contributed