Irvine Welsh & Thorsten Nagelschmidt - Harbour Front Literaturfestival

German Premiere
Reading and moderated discussion

The international bestseller “Trainspotting” catapulted Scottish underground author Irvine Welsh to international fame thirty years ago, and Danny Boyle’s legendary film adaptation (1995) became a cult classic. Now Irvine Welsh is coming to Hamburg for the first time!

David Foster Wallace, Nick Hornby, Nick Cave, Iggy Pop, and many others were—or still are—fans of Irvine Welsh. To this day, the film is regularly voted one of the ten best films of all time.
With the story of the four friends Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie—and their punk rebellion against the establishment—Irvine Welsh found his life’s theme, and several sequels followed.
Now the legendary Trainspotting gang is back! The German premiere of “Men in Love” fills a gap in the narrative timeline: What actually happened immediately after the “Trainspotting” underground era of punk and drug-fueled excess? How do you grow up without betraying your dreams? Well, the Trainspotting gang is searching for love, whatever the cost! Can that end well?
The result is a portrait of an entire generation, a *Trainspotting* saga, a punk and post-punk narrative.
Irvine Welsh performs (rather than simply reads) excerpts from his newly published novel *Men in Love* and meets Thorsten Nagelschmidt—a fan of the *Trainspotting* saga and himself an author and singer in the punk band “Muff Potter”—in a summit meeting. And, of course, Irvine Welsh will be signing not only his latest novel but also the specially published new edition of the cult classic “Trainspotting.”

“Irvine Welsh writes with skill, wit, and compassion—an art that borders on genius. He is the best thing to happen to British literature in decades.”
Nick Hornby

“Irvine Welsh is the real deal: an impressive blend of nihilism and heartbreak, precise realism—especially in dialect and tone—and almost archetypal universality.”
David Foster Wallace

With his unmistakable blend of dark humor, social impact, and raw poetry, Irvine Welsh has shaped generations of readers. In *Men in Love*, he returns to the world of his iconic characters to tell a story of love, longing, and self-destruction in late-1980s Scotland, accompanying the protagonists on their quest for love, a sense of belonging, and a way out of self-destruction and social hopelessness.

The evening will be moderated by Thorsten Nagelschmidt, singer of the band Muff Potter and a successful author in his own right. The conversation brings together two distinctive voices of contemporary culture, spanning literature, pop, and punk.

A rare opportunity to experience one of today’s most important authors live—and to have his books signed afterward!

Irvine Welsh, born in 1957 in Leith near Edinburgh, writes novels and short stories and is considered one of the most important authors of underground literature. His debut novel *Trainspotting* and the film adaptation of the same name starring Ewan McGregor brought him international fame. Many more novels followed.

Thorsten Nagelschmidt, born in 1976 in Rheine, is an author, musician, and artist. He is the singer, lyricist, and guitarist for the band Muff Potter and has published the books *Wo die wilden Maden graben* (2007), *Was kostet die Welt* (2010), and *Drive-By Shots* (2015). His most recent novels are *Der Abfall der Herzen* (2018), *Arbeit* (2020), and *Nur für Mitglieder* (2025).