‘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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Arthur’s Whisky review – Diane Keaton and Lulu in enjoyable body-change comedy

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A magic potion de-ages three women in an enjoyably middling drama-comedy with Patricia Hodge alongside Keaton and Lulu

Viciously anodyne but not entirely unamusing, this older-folk-skewed comedy puts a gentle spin on a well-worn device, the magical-body transformation. In some genteel corner of England, retirees Joan and Arthur are leading a life of quiet resignation. She does gardening and whatnot; he potters with inventions in his shed. One night, his latest concoction, a formula mixed with whisky that will de-age a person back to the body she or he had in her or his early 20s, actually works. Arthur goes outside to holler triumphantly during a storm and gets struck by lightning, leaving Joan a widow.

After the funeral, Joan (Patricia Hodge) and her two best friends, crafty divorcee Linda (Diane Keaton) and baking-obsessive Susan (Lulu), get stuck into the whisky/youthifying brew and wake up looking like the lithe young women they once were, played by three new actors: Esme Lonsdale as young Joan, Genevieve Gaunt as young Linda and Hannah Howland as young Susan. After a predictable bout of screaming and working out that the effect doesn’t last more than six hours, they soon start to enjoy feeling stronger and healthier. (There’s a funny gag that has Linda just repeatedly getting out of a chair and sitting down again, burbling with delight in finding it doesn’t hurt.)

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