Visiting family in Uganda recently, I came across some Brits, one of them a Scot, and the conversation turned to Trainspotting, as it tends to in my company. Before we met again 10 days later they got a (pirate) copy of the film, and we had an earnest discussion about the Trainspotting Phenomenon and modern Scotland. Coming home, and on my first morning back in the day job, a Russian sea-captain asked if I know about Irvine Welsh and Trainspotting. Well, yes. So there was another well informed discussion, which wasn’t long enough. What more inspiration do I need to get on with my book than encouragement from Kampala to Archangel?
There is more: in the next few weeks I’m taking a sixth-form class from a private Scottish school and a small party of Germans on the tour. The spread of interest seems never-ending. A lengthy review of Munro’s book Lust for Life (see Crowded Bookshelves blog) concludes that it adds not very much insight or useful information about the Phenomenon (Scottish Review of Books vol 9 no.3 2013). So I’ll stop writing blogs and get up to the library.
