For Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, life doesn’t get any better than this. At 52, he’s dabbling in all sorts of things — writing for a television series, turning his books into films and of course, penning books.

“I can’t live without writing,” says Welsh, adding, “There’s no doubt that I’d have still been into drugs was I not writing”. Having been in and then out of that world as a youngster, it is a theme that has found space in nearly all his work.

Take Trainspotting for instance, published in 1993 and made into a hugely successful and BAFTA-winning film of the same name by Danny Boyle (of Slumdog Millionaire fame). Exploring Scotland’s political and social turmoil in the 1980s and its impact on the country’s youth, the story follows the lives of a group of friends as they struggle with drug abuse and the effect that it has on them and their respective relationships.

“I liked the film much more than the book. Having read it several times over time, I find myself constantly punching holes in the story,” says Welsh. That said, he does mourn what he calls “the recklessness and power” of his early work like Trainspotting.

Welsh’s subsequent books such as Filth, Glue, Porno and Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance also proved to be runaway hits — while Ecstasy became the first paperback to hit the No. 1 spot on Sunday Times’ bestseller list, Filth became the author’s second most successful novel after Trainspotting.

Today, Welsh is in the midst of a flurry of activities. He recently completed the much-awaited prequel to Trainspotting — Skagboys — which is scheduled for an early 2012 release by Random House UK.

“In Skagboys, I’ve given greater depth to circumstances and human relationships, rather than working only on the individual characters,” says Welsh. Family dynamics, for example, plays a vital role in this book. And considering Trainspotting did not speak of where the characters came from and the context of their condition, Skagboys promises to make up for all the lost time, as it were.

So the prequel focuses on the characters when they were a few years younger and traces the trajectory of their lives as they increasingly become embroiled in the drug culture that surrounded them. Set in the Scotland of 1970s, it promises to pack in a heavy punch.

While Welsh always enjoyed writing in school, it was only in the 1980s that he took it up seriously. The interim period was marked by several highs and lows — he dropped out of school, moved to London to make the most of the city’s punk scene and even got arrested for petty crimes before moving back to Edinburgh in the early ’80s. Eventually he worked for the city council’s housing department before going on to completing an MBA from Heriot Watt University.

In Edinburgh, he set up a club with a friend — Invisible Resurrection. “While I was extremely taken up by the rave scene at Edinburgh and was more inclined towards the hedonistic side of things, I also began to emphasise reading in the club. So after we danced and got high all night, the next morning we’d contemplate on various readings,” says Welsh. Of course, it helped that at the time, contemporary writers such as Duncan McLean, Barry Graham and Alan Warner were also starting off in Edinburgh.

A partner in two film-production companies, Welsh is also busy writing a number of screenplays. But what’s got him busier are the two upcoming films based on his books, Filth and Ecstasy. The former is being produced and directed by Jon S. Baird, while the latter is being produced, directed and written by award-winning Canadian filmmaker, Rob Heydon.

“It’s amazing how difficult it is to get a film funded in the UK if you don’t know the right people,” rues Welsh. And why doesn’t he write screenplays for films based on his books? “Once you’ve written a book, it’s difficult to offer anything fresh on it because there’s only one way that you can look at it. Others tend to have a different and sometimes, a better perspective of what you’ve written,” he points out.

It wasn’t until 1995, two years after Trainspotting achieved cult status, that Welsh decided to write full- time. And though it was difficult then to make a living by your pen, the writer believes that it’s much easier now to be an author.

“Look at the large number of creative writing courses that have sprung up the world over,” says Welsh. But, he says, one shouldn’t choose to write books if you’re only in love with the romantic notion of being a writer.

“Enjoying writing is most important,” says Welsh. He goes on to add that he might go for a week without writing, after which it becomes impossible to stay sane. Welsh emphasises the need to write with disciplined regularity — a maxim that he has stuck by since his started writing seriously.

His inspiration remains all that he’s experienced as a youth, and the kind of life he’s seen — though he’s quick to add that he’s had a normal childhood. “I think I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t happy as a child,” says the writer.“Growing in housing schemes at Muirhouse in Edinburgh, there were many families that all felt like one,” adds Welsh.

In fact, he says that having lived in various places — Dublin, Miami, and now Chicago — going back to Edinburgh is always a pleasure. “I still go back to visit my best friends, who’ve been around ever since I was six years old”, says Welsh. And despite the aggressive images of Edinburgh that he portrays in his novels, Welsh retains a fond connection with his hometown.

And how much of his life does one read about in his books? Welsh insists that though he’s close to all his characters and while a lot of events in his books are narrations of real-life situations, it is all ultimately fiction. “The idea is to find bigger life truths by writing fiction rather than just sticking to what you’ve actually seen,” he says.

Even as he wrote about urgent matters affecting younger people, Welsh never quite realised the impact of his work. In fact, he would detach himself from his work once it was on the shelves and his influence on young minds dawned on him much later. He recounts the incident of a young boy who wrote to him from prison. Says Welsh: “He was dyslexic and so was forced out of the edu- cation system early on in his childhood. Trainspotting was the first book he ever read.” Armed with his new-found love for literature, he came out of prison and in due course, became a professor.

Welsh is also driven towards humanitarian projects in various parts of the world. And one project that he is associated with is Scottish Love in Action, a Scotland-based charity foundation that supports and cares for destitute Indian children. Run by an Indian NGO in Hyderabad in the form of a home-cum-school, the foundation largely supports Dalit children — mostly orphans.

However, according to Welsh, it’s important to remember where you come from. “Even as I’m committed towards the public cause, I don’t want to disappear from the spotlight. That also tends to defeat the whole purpose of lending a hand to any cause,” he says. The key is, he points out, to keep the balance going.

At this stage, Welsh has his hands full. Alongside his responsibilities towards the film versions of Filth and Ecstasy, he’s flitting between writing a new novel set in Miami, screenplays for a television series and also a film.

Irvine Welsh’s book Trainspotting has been made into a BAFTA-winning film

The television series, which he is putting together for British broadcaster Channel 4, revolves around Britain’s music business during the 1990s. Having been a musician himself in London, it’s not a whole new world for him. One can expect a generous dose of action and drama laced, of course, with his signature starkness. But that’s not all; he’s also writing the screenplay for a vampire film.

Considering that Trainspotting had to be toned down in the film version (it was banned in Russia and Greece for some time), Welsh is not worried about the impact of his upcoming films. He says that the censor board can’t be the reason for holding back creativity. And who cares about the censor board when you’ve captured the imagination of youngsters around the world.