Southbank Centre (Hayward Gallery)

Irvine Welsh on the Trainspotting Timeline

Irvine Welsh uses a candid interview to explain how his habit of writing out of sequence has led to continuity problems across the Trainspotting universe. He describes the difficulty of keeping track of character arcs when chapters are drafted non‑chronologically, noting that this approach often forces him to retroactively fix errors. The author cites a specific inconsistency in his 2018 novel Dead Men’s Trousers, where Sick Boy’s son is portrayed as twenty instead of the expected thirty. Welsh admits that such slip‑ups arise from “not writing temporally” and that he now relies on a large wall chart to map events and ages. During the conversation, Welsh jokes, “I just realized that…,” underscoring his self‑critical humor while acknowledging the frustration editors feel when they receive contradictory details. The anecdote illustrates the broader challenge of maintaining a coherent timeline in a sprawling series. For readers and publishers, Welsh’s admission signals the need for stricter continuity controls in long‑running franchises. It also offers aspiring writers a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of non‑linear drafting and the practical tools—like visual charts—that can mitigate narrative drift.