S10, Ep4: Irvine Welsh, writer

Comfort Eating with Grace Dent

The Guardian

Arts, Food

4.5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Scottish writer Irvine Welsh joins Grace to share his ultimate comfort food. Irvine has been a towering figure in our cultural galaxy for 30 years. His bestselling novels include Porno, The Acid House, Filth and, of course, Trainspotting. Trainspotting – famously autobiographical – follows a group of heroin addicts in a deprived area of Edinburgh. It was a huge hit, selling more than a million copies. The movie, released a few years later, was nothing short of a sensation at the box office. Irvine’s new book is accompanied by his debut album, both with the same name: Men In Love is a sequel to Trainspotting, and picks up where the characters left off back in 1993.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:08.1	Hello listeners, just a heads up.
0:10.3	In this episode, we talk about booze in and substance use.
0:14.1	If you're struggling, there are details in the show notes for places to get support.
0:19.4	I'm Grace Dent and this is comfort eating from The Guardian.
0:24.9	A podcast where we pay homage to the lesser celebrated foods in life.
0:30.9	Because even as a restaurant critic,
0:33.2	I believe the food that matters most is often that snack
0:37.0	you cobble together when you're curled upon the sofa.
0:40.6	Each week, I ask my guest to lift the lid on what comfort foods have seen them through their lives.
0:47.7	Because you can tell a lot about a person from what they eat behind closed doors.
0:55.5	Hello, friends, it is so good to be. from what they eat behind closed on. Hello friends.
0:56.9	It is so good to have you here.
0:59.4	Welcome to comfort eating.
1:01.9	Now, I've been having a little bit of a tidy round.
1:04.9	I've been hovering, I've been dusting,
1:07.3	and right now I'm making my bed before my guest arrives.
1:10.8	Now, I'm hoping he's not going to see my
1:12.5	bed, but I am a strong believer in tidy bed, tidy mind. It is so hot here today. If you could see
1:21.5	my bed right now, you might judge me. You would say, Grace, is that not a very heavy wedge
1:27.0	feathers for this time of the summer? And I would say, Grace, is that not a very heavy wedge of feathers for this time of the summer?
1:29.7	And I would say to you, it's none of your business.
	...

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