Irvine Welsh Books in Order
Irvine Welsh has written 24 books, published between 1993 and 2025. The first book is Trainspotting (1993) and the newest is Men In Love (2025). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 24
- Published
- 1993–2025
- Confirmed
- 24 of 24 titles
- Pages on record
- 5,662 in 18 of 24 books
- Reading time
- 94–142 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 5,662 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 18 of 24 titles with a page count on record.
Irvine Welsh, born 27 September 1958, is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and filmmaker. The fiction is nearly always set in Scotland and portrays working-class life, including drug addiction, social alienation, lack of opportunity and boredom. Trainspotting (1993), the debut novel, was adapted into a film of the same name. The catalogue counts 24 books, among them The Acid House (1994), Filth (1998), Glue (2001) and Porno (2005), through Men In Love (2025). Trainspotting / Mark Renton and Terry Lawson are series.
How many Irvine Welsh books are there?
Irvine Welsh has 24 books, released between 1993 and 2025. They include 3 separate series.
Irvine Welsh Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 24 Irvine Welsh books in the order they were released, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 119933443/4
- 219942893/4
- 31995–3/4
- 419962763/4
- 519983923/4
- 61998633/4
- 720014693/4
- 820054833/4
- 9The Bedroom Secrets of the Master ChefsIrvine Welsh Standalone Novels #42006 · 400 pages · confirmed 3/420064003/4
- 1020061123/4
- 112007–3/4
- 122008–3/4
- 1320092123/4
- 1420092733/4
- 1520111383/4
- 1620123363/4
- 1720144673/4
- 1820154963/4
- 1920164483/4
- 2020181283/4
- 2120183363/4
- 222022–3/4
- 232024–3/4
- 242025–3/4
Irvine Welsh books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Trainspotting / Mark Renton in order
6 booksIrvine Welsh Standalone Novels
6 books6 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Irvine Welsh Short Story
4 books4 titles published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Terry Lawson in order
2 books- 1. Glue
- 2. A Decent Ride
Crime in order
2 books- 1. Crime
- 2. The Long Knives
Irvine Welsh Non-Fiction
1 book1 title published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Book Slam Annual in order
1 bookIrvine Welsh Short Stories/Novellas
1 book1 title published under this heading without a numbered place in a series.
Friendship in order
1 bookIrvine Welsh Books in Chronological Order
By publication date, the Irvine Welsh books run from Trainspotting (1993) to Men In Love (2025), the sequence in the table above. No separate story order is recorded for Irvine Welsh in the book listings this catalogue merges, so publication order is the only order on record.
Do you have to read Irvine Welsh books in order?
You only need to read Irvine Welsh books in order within each series: the books listed here span 3 separate series, and each series has its own publication order.
Where to start with Irvine Welsh
Start with Trainspotting (1993), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Irvine Welsh book?
Men In Love (2025) is the newest Irvine Welsh book released so far.
Is there a new Irvine Welsh book coming?
No next Irvine Welsh book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Irvine Welsh at a glance
- Still publishing
- Irvine Welsh published a book as recently as 2025.
- Release pace
- Irvine Welsh books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 5,662 pages across the 18 of 24 books with a recorded length, a median of 336 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Irvine Welsh books, 8 of 24, were published in the 2000s.
What the Irvine Welsh books are about
21 of the 24 Irvine Welsh books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: edinburgh (scotland) is tagged on 6 of 21. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Edinburgh (Scotland) 6 of 21 books
- Scotland 5 of 21 books
- Psychological fiction 4 of 21 books
- Short stories 4 of 21 books
- Social life and customs 4 of 21 books
- 18.05 English literature 2 of 21 books
- Drama 2 of 21 books
- Drug addicts 2 of 21 books
- Florida 2 of 21 books
- Friendship 2 of 21 books
- Humor 2 of 21 books