Abhorrently dark and raw to the core, Trainspotting is an insight into one of life’s many ugly personalities — addiction and the accompanying domino effect of grim inevitabilities… Irvine Welsh’s novel will always be a cult classic.

Welsh’s skill as a storyteller is undeniable, bringing both wit and compassion to a grim subject matter. If you liked Danny Boyle’s film adaptation, you’ll love the original.

The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent

The best book ever written by man or woman... Deserves to sell more copies than the bible

Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing for decades

An unremitting powerhouse of a novel that marked the arrival of a major new talent… Loud with laughter in the dark, this novel is the real McCoy

A novel perpetually in a starburst of verbal energy - a vernacular spectacular... The stories we hear are retched from the gullet

An unremitting powerhouse of a novel that marked the arrival of a major new talent. Trainspotting is a loosely knotted string of jagged dislocated tales that lay bare the hearts of darkness of the junkies, wideboys and psychos who ride the down escalator of opportunity in the nation's capital. Loud with laughter in the dark, this novel is the real Mccoy

A page-turner... Trainspotting gives lies to any cosy notions of a classless society

The Scottish Celine

One of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force

Welsh has certainly described the world surrounding Edinburgh's underground drug movement with a most amazing intimacy

A captivating read

An exciting and intelligent novel... Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant

Particulary acute on the muddle of emotion, reason and morality that festers around betrayal...compelling, impressively detailed story, with thrillerish overtones...

A wonderfully plotted spy drama full of intrigue and suspense… A fantastic read

Extremely readable

A brilliant spy novel, with an unlikely culprit and a deft, involving plot... Tense, beautifully pitched and very moving

[A] polished, intricate novel… rich in moral ambiguity

This powerfully-written spy thriller is compulsive reading

A gripping spy novel with an unlikely culprit and a thoroughly researched basis in fact... Perfect for fans of William Boyd's Restless

Sadie Jones…enters new literary territory with a whimsical Edwardian farce that takes its lead from the darker offerings of Saki and JB Priestley...The novel's denouement is satisfyingly outlandish

With elegant ease, Jones spins a good old-fashioned comedy of manners