‘Am I 68? 69?’ Irvine Welsh on growing old, getting clean, bashing out his new novel – and flirting with guns

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Three decades after he channelled his heroin addiction into the cult classic Trainspotting, the Scottish author has discovered the joys of yoga, breathwork and standing desks. But is he quite as ‘Zen’ as he claims? By rights, Irvine Welsh ought to be photographed somewhere gritty, looking grumpy, he says: “That’s the brand.” Beside a graffitied wall or at the docks, with a beanie pulled low, and definitely not smiling. But here he is, clear-skinned and wholesome in shorts and a T-shirt, drinking tea and – it’s hard to think of anything more off-brand – talking about the health benefits of yoga. Given his reputation for having lived in the worlds his books portray, he should or could look a lot worse. He guffaws at this, eyes a delighted blue, and repeats the phrase as if he’s found a new personal tagline: “Could look a lot worse!” Over the three decades since his cult debut, Trainspotting, was published in 1993, Welsh’s fiction has explored with humour the darker side of life. Drugs, c...
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Ambush review – battle fatigued Nam actioner fights worn-out war tropes

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This low-budget effort featuring phoned-in turns from Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Eckhart ticks off all the cliches while lacking a moral perspective

Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Aaron Eckhart, the big-name stars of this on-the-cheap Vietnam-war actioner, are definitely on a cushy number here. They live it up above ground as, respectively, an elite tracker and a no-nonsense general, while poor old Connor Paolo has to scurry around in the Củ Chi tunnel system for most of the running time. Hopefully his contract demanded access to a chiropractor.

Paolo plays US army engineer Ackermann, sent with his fellow “construction workers” into the netherworld to retrieve a stolen classified binder containing the names of south Vietnamese operatives undercover in the north. He’s got two hours to dodge the punji stake traps and get the job done – at which point, unknown to him, Eckhart’s expedient Gen Drummond is planning to blow the entire complex and the sensitive intel along with it. Up top, Miller (Rhys Meyers) and other special forces goons are patrolling the forest to make sure the “tunnel rats” don’t get any nasty surprises.

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