As one of his biggest fans, you have no idea how thrilled I was today to hear that there’s another instalment in the Trainspotting story coming from Irvine Welsh. The book, due in March will continue the story of Mark Renton, Simon ‘Sick-Boy’ Williamson, Spud, and Begbie from their heroine fuelled days in Leith, Edinburgh to the middle age that must surely now be upon them.
The Trainspotting story was Irvine Welsh’s first success and a cult movie soon followed. More books followed, and these too stayed within the universe Welsh had created with bit parts from known characters. In Glue we met Juice Terry who would become a regular when the Trainspotting sequel, Porno was finally released.
Porno followed the boys into their twenties, Renton still elusive, running clubs in Amsterdam, Begbie as angry as ever, and Spud reflecting on a wasted life and Leith’s legacy. Eventually a movie sequel would follow, and we saw this last year as Trainspotting 2, or T2 and while it loosely followed Porno in parts, it’s unlikely to become canon for readers.
It was hard to see where the franchise would go from here, and then came the politically charged, 1980s homage that is Skagboys, the prequel to the original Trainspotting. Here we’d learn what the group were like as boys, how they grew to men, and the first time they tried heroine. This is one I would love to see in movie format, though it’s unlikely they would be able to now cast the older actors in the roles.
Now comes Dead Men’s Trousers, and Welsh says it will be the final instalment in the series. He also hints that he will be killing off a major character. Fans of Porno may be surprised to hear this, as it seemed at the end of Porno he had killed off Begbie, and to me at least he was dead for a long time. Welsh says the same, that in his head Begbie was dead, but he resurrected him for a short story in the Big Issue and he’s likely to feature in Dead Men’s Trousers. Those who skipped Porno and watched T2 instead, may be surprised to hear of Begbie’s seeming demise, but with Begbie resurrected, the canon from movie and book do at least now match.
The blurb for the new book released by Penguin reads: “Mark Renton is finally a success. An international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJs, but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life.
“He’s then rocked by a chance encounter with Frank Begbie, from whom he’d been hiding for years after a terrible betrayal and the resulting debt. But the psychotic Begbie appears to have reinvented himself as a celebrated artist and – much to Mark’s astonishment – doesn’t seem interested in revenge.”
It’s out late March and available for pre-order now!
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Why no mention of the Begbie novel the ‘The Blade Artist’ that was released last year? Begbie was very much alive and well in that. I’m assuming that you missed that one.it was relased around about the same time as T2. It also featured small cameos from both Renton and Spud. It’s by far the weakest out of the Trainspotting series (let’s be honest he bar is set so high) but definitely worth a read all the same. Especially given that (without giving away it’s ending) appears to set up Dead Mans Trousers.