Skagboys

Irvine Welsh’s Skagboys shows us Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, Tommy and Begbie before heroin consumed almost everything. They are still working, studying, travelling, falling in love and imagining futures beyond Leith, which makes watching those possibilities disappear especially painful.

For me, this is far more than background to Trainspotting. Welsh places their addictions within the unemployment, collapsing communities and political defeat of Thatcher’s Britain, without pretending heroin was forced upon them or excusing the damage they cause. Renton’s family losses give his decline real emotional weight, while Spud’s vulnerability makes his story particularly difficult to watch unfold.

It is filthy, violent and often extremely funny, but there is enormous sadness beneath the chaos. Skagboys shows how these young men became the characters we recognise, and how slowly a temporary escape hardened into an entire way of life.