It was meant to be a warning against the excesses of heroin use, according to its author. A no-holds-barred, gritty – albeit often comic – portrait of the travails of a disparate group of misfits navigating Edinburgh’s dark, drug-riddled underbelly.
Yet 30 years after Trainspotting was first published, the book’s message has turned full circle, says Irvine Welsh – and now might as well be: “choose drugs”.
