Press

What the critics say

Welsh's descriptive style is masterful - crude, violent and poetic by turns - but it is dialogue for which he has the Midas touch... Its banter, outrage and razor wit sing off the page. A film, one suspects, isn't far off.
- Independent

The voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent.
- The Times

I’m not sure that in 2012 there will be a single novel, never mind half a dozen, with more verve or nous or life in it than Skagboys. Ye kin pure tell they Booker gadgies’ll no huv the baws but…
- Literary Review

I ended up charmed beyond measure, if that is the right word for a novel whose odd moments of poignance are regularly booted into touch by death, disillusionment and dereliction.
- Spectator

Trainspotting may be a masterpiece but Skagboys is the reason the artist painted it, and sometimes that's the most compelling story.
- Stylist

One of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force.
- Times Literary Supplement

Welsh's knack for dialogue - both ineternal and conversational - remains virtuosic and often exhilarating. It makes for characters you can't help but care about even the psychopaths and amoral chancers like Begbie and Sick Boy... Welsh's finest work to date.
- The Times

Welsh somehow manages to be both the Zola of Therese Raquin, and Dostoevsky's Underground Man, ranging between quasi-scientific perspective and a more immersed, troubling one. That he does so for the most part in a furious low Scots vernacular - filthy, or fulthy, and hugely funny at times - may seem remarkable.
- Daily Telegraph

Welsh performs the mysterious feat of making you think that his characters are real.
- Guardian

A brilliantly funny, scary, sweeping novel with all the energy of Welsh's debut, but imbued with a wider sense of political and social engagement.
- Independent on Sunday

It’s brilliant and even more thrilling than its predecessor.
- Mail on Sunday

Like Trainspotting, Skagboys thrusts along with the exuberance of its episodic stories. Welsh hasn't lost his flair for comic set pieces.
- Sunday Times

Quite simply a masterpiece…at least as assured and vibrant in its characterization as Trainspotting, Skagboys is even more on the money politically… This novel more than any other, (including its brilliant predecessor) stands as our spiritual and moral history.
- Scotsman

It was never going to be light reading, but Welsh's vigour, wit and energy still make it compulsive.
- Vogue

Skagboys is a compelling tale…a seriously entertaining piece of work.
- The Irish Times

If you too loved the colloquial tangle of Trainspotting, you'll find a similar rhythm in Skagboys.
- Word Magazine

There is enough of what Welsh does well - needle-sharp dialogue, vivid characters and a certainty of place - to make Skagboys his best work in many years…an essential read.
- Irish Examiner

A cracking read.
- Time Out

Very good.
- Prospect

Irvine Welsh returned to rip-roaring form with Skagboys ... possibly better even than Trainspotting. His psychological mining into Mark Renton in particular is full, elaborate and rich and his viewpoint on society and politics is far wider than in previous books.
- Scotsman