There was a lot of discussion about it, with the worry that it might be a bit retro. But it puts Leith Central Station up front, where it is in Trainspotting, and where it is in my book. The station itself was huge and useless, and, during Welsh’s life time up to its demolition in 1989, derelict, dangerous, an attraction to trouble. So I invite the reader to re-imagine the line of men and boys in the 1904 image, stretched out between the safe, secure Kirkgate over the photographer’s right shoulder and their access to the outside world as a line of 1980s Leith junkies. For them the Kirkgate is not a safe secure home, and their access to other places is heroin. It’s a powerful and direct way to open my book.
I’ll post details of how to buy the book when more is known.