Tim Bell has lived in Leith since 1980. Intrigued by the way Welsh spliced geography and history into _Trainspotting_, he set about unpicking the chaos and complexities of the place and the culture.
In 2000, Tim became a tour guide in Leith and embarked on research for _Choose Life, Choose Leith_.
Tim joins us to give a _Trainspotting_ Walk, beginning in the bookshop for coffee and cake and ending at the foot of Easter Road. _Please note, you will have to make your own way home from there!_
_The walk will take around an hour in total. We ask you to wear sensible shoes and clothes._
Much more than transgressional entertainment, Irvine Welsh’s book _Trainspotting_ and its derivatives is a window into the social mayhem that was everyday life in one of the most deprived areas in 1980s Britain. Thatcherism. Greed. Poverty. Heroin. HIV. Disenfranchised youth. In the back garden of posh, prosperous Edinburgh, Leith had the lot.
For 20 years, Bell has interpreted _Trainspotting _on the streets of Leith for locals, tourists, aficionados and academics. In this book, a critical analysis of _Trainspotting_ – the book, the play, and the film – he splices well-researched erudition with street-level wisdom and lived-experience testimony to tell the story behind the story.
This new edition refocuses _Trainspotting _as a creative chronicle of the early years of the ongoing and uniquely Scottish drug death culture.