The latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast is our ‘Welshcast’; an examination and celebration of the work of Irvine Welsh and how he has influenced Scottish culture for the last 20 years. Ali and Ian are joined by writer, and now actor, Alan Bissett, and bookseller and Scot Lit promoter Karyn Dougan, who thought she was there only to observe proceedings but soon found out that everyone in the room gets roped into the discussion in one way or another. Both their contributions help to make the podcast a thorough look at most things Irvine Welsh.
Welsh is unarguably one of the most important writers of the last 20 years, and arguably the most influential. The starting point for the talk came from Alan and Ali’s shared belief that the recent novel Skagboys could perhaps be Welsh’s greatest achievement, and they are both aware of what that means. Using the book as a perhaps unexpected starting point, the conversation goes back to Trainspotting and attempts to deal with as much of his writing career as time allowed.
This includes, between the bookends of Trainspotting and Skagboys, The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Filth, Porno as well as a brief mention of everything else (with the pointed exception of Glue which unfortunately gets overlooked in the attempt to cover all). This is not a simple hagiography, Welsh’s faults are addressed as well as his successes, and you’ll have to listen to the whole to get the full picture. And as always, if you disagree with what’s been said, or just want to have your say, then let us know below.
At one point we refer to the tapeworm sections of Filth and how they are represented on the page. In case it is unclear you can see what Alan describes as ‘the filthy Hungry Caterpillar’ to your right.
To win a copy of Welsh’s The Acid House simply listen to the podcast and point out the deliberate mistake Ali makes when referring to the 2008 novel Crime. Answers to scotswhayhae@gmail.com by August 18th and we’ll pull the winner out of the Scots Whay Hae! bunnett.
The next podcast is going to be an interview with one of the most important people in the promotion of Scottish writing and music of the last 20 odd years. Who can it be? Find out next time…on the Scots Whay Hae! Podcast, which you can do before more casual listeners by subscribing at iTunes or by RSS. We’ll also be heading through to the Edinburgh Festival to do some recordings on the streets, or more likely in the pubs, talking to performers and punters about what they are looking forward to, or can already recommend, at this year’s festivities. Keep an eye out and say hello.
You can read Scots Whay Hae’s review of Skagboys by clicking here.
p.s I’d just like to point out that I’m sitting down in the picture at the top of the page, just in case there was any confusion.
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