Irvine Welsh

Russell Brand: In Plan Sight: Irvine Welsh says entertainment industry 'needs to get house in order'

Scottish author Irvine Welsh says the entertainment industry needs to "get its house in order" after allegations of rape, sexual assault and abuse were levelled against Russell Brand.

Irvine Welsh on his three Fringe shows

Perhaps more than any other author you can think of, people tend to confuse Irvine Welsh with one of his characters. Mention his name, especially in the streets of Edinburgh, and most people will think of someone out caning it in a club till the small hours, or at least mouthing off drunk in a pub somewhere down in Leith.

Irvine Welsh: Creatives about rich domination of arts

'I think now you get a lot of rich kids going into the arts who wouldn't have bothered before because they had different career paths. But all these professions are drying up now'

Irvine Welsh interview

As a novelist, Irvine Welsh needs no introduction.

Pick of the Edinburgh Fringe - issue 7

Have a wonderful 70th Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

How the Fringe helped launch Irvine Welsh's career

The award-winning author says the Fringe was what made him think he could forge a career out of his writing.

Performers preview

Irvine Welsh collaborates with Dean Cavanagh on a play set in the 1960s during the filming of the Mick Jagger movie Performance. The backdrop is a London where artists and gangsters rub shoulders.

Fringe 2017 - Creatives

When former student, pop star Sean O'Neil, visits this group of musicians to judge a contest, the stakes are suddenly raised to new levels when both revenge and jealousies come to the fore.

Irvine Welsh to premiere new comedy play at the Fringe

The writer, who has only previously penned two stage plays, has created a black comedy about two real-life gangland figures auditioning for a role in the cult film Performance, which Mick Jagger made with Edinburgh-born director Donald Cammell in 1968.

James McAvoy is a very bad cop indeed in Baird's relentlessly grimy, brutal screen adaptation of Irvine Welsh's misanthropic novel. McAvoy's coke-, booze- and sex-addled DS Bruce Robertson is trying to lie and cheat his way up the Edinburgh rozzers' career ladder. It's a powerhouse performance and there's sterling support from the likes of Eddie Marsan and Shirley Henderson but, lacking the warmth and humour of, say, Trainspotting, it's a gruelling experience.