Junkie, DJ, punk, pill popper, petty criminal, binge drinker, screenwriter, TV repairman: Irvine Welsh has lived more lives than the average man of letters and survived to tell the tale. In his hallucinogenic fiction, God turns men into flies as punishment for wasting their lives, babies and ravers swap bodies, and tapeworms tell stories about the humans in whose guts they reside.

The most important Scottish novelist of his generation joins How To Academy to take us inside his life and world, and offer a preview of The Long Knives, the second in his hugely acclaimed CRIME trilogy.

This episode contains lots of swearing. If you would prefer a beeped version please visit our website.

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