Trainspotting talent

Alumnus to be proud of No 84 is novelist Irvine Welsh, who rocketed to fame after writing the seminal heroin-addiction novel Trainspotting, which last year spawned the ultra-hip film of the same title.

After spending much of the 1980s as a semi-professional punk and drug addict, Welsh combined writing his stellar debut with studying part time for an MBA in computer systems at Heriot-Watt University (and working for Edinburgh Council as a training officer). His narrator, Renton, was an Aberdeen University drop-out.