Choose Life Choose Leith

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.

TIM BELL is originally from Northumberland, but has lived in Leith since the 1980s. Having lived in the area at the time Trainspotting was set, Bell has seen the change in Leith and the troubles it has faced. Bell, who runs Trainspotting tours in Leith, has a thorough knowledge of the book, the play and the film, as well as the history of Leith, and through his book wanted to put Leith back at the heart of Trainspotting, back where it belongs.