This first full-length study of Welsh provides a sustained textual and contextual analysis of all his work, from Trainspotting and The Acid House to Glue and Porno. A detailed chronological survey also considers the appropriateness of cultural, postmodern and postcolonial theories to Welsh's incendiary fiction. Kelly gives fascinating insight into the writer's formal and political ambitions, placing him in the context of the "brat pack" which exploded onto the Scottish literary scene in the 1990s. He explores the social, class and political conditioning of Welsh's early life, and its impact on his motivations for writing.