Skagboys - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Section 1: Tempted

1. Prologue: Notes From Rehab Journal (Concerning Orgreave) - narrated by Renton. Mark and his father Davie have traveled south to Yorkshire on the Scottish NUM bus from his Gran’s in Glasgow to take part in the picket of the coke plant. After briefly meeting his London pal Nicksy, Mark gets caught up in the police-picket violence before returning, shaken, to the coach. Feeling estranged from the other pickets, particularly after his father has a brief sectarian conflict with some fellow Glaswegians, Mark gets off the coach along the motorway, much to the consternation of Davie who is worried about the hospitalization of Mark’s young handicapped brother, Wee Davie. A confused Mark ponders: “we’ve lost the class war, what do I do with the rest of my life?”

2. I Did What I Did - Narrated by Sick Boy. Delighted by the fact that his father has abandoned his mother and sisters and the family home in the Banana flats, Simon ‘Sick Boy’ Williamson spies Maria, nubile daughter of his old neighbours Coke and Janey, and is completely smitten. Determined to seduce her, he befriends Coke, taking him to the local pub to watch French footballer Platini in Euro 84, before they fall foul of violent, ex-cop pub landlord Dickson, and are expelled from the bar.

3. Blackpool - Narrated by Renton. A student at Aberdeen, Mark is working over the summer vacation for his old employer Ralphie Gillsland as a joiner, and looking forward to a Northern Soul night in Blackpool, which he attends with Tommy, Keezbo and Second Prize. The latter, disgusted that there is no alcohol in the club heads off, while Mark meets Nicksy and Manchester girl Roberta, and they go onto a party. He is offered heroin to chase, but rejects this in disgust. Monday he feels rough, with only crapulent factory games sustaining him. He heads home, meeting Sick Boy. They run into Margaret Curran, a racist ex-neighbour, and joke at her expense.

4. Notes On An Epidemic 1 - Third person narration lamenting the devolution referendum of 1979 and the failure to provide a Scottish parliament.

5. Too Shy – Third Person narrative. Renton in a pub on Leith Walk with Begbie, Spud, Tommy and Keezbo, Lesley is working behind the bar. The boys are watching Plantini in Euro 84 final and listening to White Lines. Eighteen-year old Samantha Frenchard comes in, accusing Begbie of getting her pregnant. After a blazing row he humiliates her and she storms out, swearing retribution.

6. First Shot: Just Say ‘Aye’- Narrated by Renton. Renton realises that he really wanted to take the skag in Manchester, as he’s been obsessing about it since. He and Sick Boy go to see Swanney, an old football mate, who is known to be a drug dealer. Despite Renton’s poor veins, Swanney helps him fix up. The resulting high is so good he doesn’t even care that he and Sick Boy have stood up the psychotic Begbie for a drink.

7. Family Planning - Third person narration. Samatha’s family learn about her pregnancy, and she tells her mother, Belle, and violent brothers Ronnie, George and Alec, that Begbie wants nothing to do with her or the baby. They plot revenge.

8. Way of the Dragon – Narrated by Sick Boy. Starts with Sick Boy and Renton scared as Begbie visits, but to their relief he’d also stood them up as he was shagging June. So all is well and Sick Boy heads down to Coke and Janey’s to cruise Maria. He takes Coke out and they once again end up in Dickson’s pub, where Sick Boy fixes heroin in the toilet. In the meantime, Dickson has taken a drunken Coke out into the yard and beaten him unconscious. The police and ambulance arrive and Sick Boy heads up to the hospital where he meets a distraught Janey, Grant and Maria, as they learn that Coke has slipped into a coma and probably won’t be coming out.

9. Held Out – Narrated by Renton. Feeling isolated in his family’s concern over Wee Davie, (his hospitalized brother) Renton has moved into Sick Boy’s place on Montgomery Street. Sick Boy comes in with the news that Coke has died and leaves to comfort the family. Mark decides he wants more heroin, and goes to see Matty, who takes him to meet Mikey Forrester in Muirhouse. There are some boys present whom he doesn’t know, one called American Andy. The boys cook up in a big syringe, but Renton can’t find a vein and they grow impatient, forcing him to chase it humiliatingly ‘with the lassies.’ They are Alison, who tells Renton her mother is dying, Lesley, and a girl called Sylvia, who flirts with him to annoy Forrester, and an argument breaks out. Renton goes back to Lochend with Sylvia, and after meeting a Begbie nemesis, Cha Morrison, they go to her place and have bad sex. When he gets back, Spud calls, and this time Renton succeeds in finding a vein, as well as giving Spud his first hit.

10. Dutch Elm –Third person narrative. Alison’s first day at work in the city council’s new Dutch Elm disease control unit. She’s gone into work destroyed, having learned her mother’s cancer has returned, then getting wasted on smack with the others in Muirhouse and Tolcross. She gets a tour of unit’s activities, then ends up drinking with her new boss, Alexander Birch, and after stumbling on Alexander’s brother, Russell, discussing a drug-smuggling deal with a workmate from the local chemical processing plant, they go on to a Birch family barbecue. After an argument with his mother, Alexander is humiliated and leaves the party. Alison follows him and seduces him.

Section 2: Falling

11. Interail – Narrated by Renton, telling the story of his trip to Europe with fellow Aberdeen Uni students Fiona, Joanne and Bisto, and the start of his romance and love affair with Fiona. It’s a chapter describing his social and sexual liberation, contrasting his freedom with life in Leith and the shame of guilty copulations in stairs and back alleys, and his ‘spazzy’ brother at home. There is an acid trip where he has a sad vision, then returns home to find that Wee Davie has died.

12. Misery Loves Bedfellows – Narrated by Sick Boy, who describes Iceberg Slim’s Pimp as a ‘fucking manifesto’. Upset that Maria is out of his clutches at Janey’s brother’s place in Nottingham, he seduces the bereaved Janey, encouraging her to make a fraudulent claim on Coke’s docks pension.

13. Funeral Pyre – Narrated by Renton, who is preparing for Wee Davie’s funeral, first at the flat with Sick Boy, then at the family home. The tension between him and his parents and brother Billy is palpable, but dissipated by the arrival of Fiona who charms his family and calms Mark down. His ex-girlfriend, Hazel, is also awkwardly present and there are arguments with ex-neighbour Margaret Curran.

14. Notes on an Epidemic 2 – Third person narration on unemployment rising steeply under Labour, then drastically under the Conservatives.

15. Love Cats – Narrated by Spud, who is unemployed, skint and bored. He meets Sick Boy, who is staring at a government poster encouraging people to grass benefit cheats, then Alison who takes him to meet the girls, but they subsequently head up town. He’s left him to meet the boys in Leith Walk, where he witnesses Begbie stabbing one of the Frenchard brothers who came down to see him about Samantha.

16. Freedom – Narrated by Renton. A short chapter, as Renton ruminates on love’s limitations. After he and Fiona make love, he finds the intimacy suffocating has to get away and go for a walk. He ends up calling Sick Boy, and hearing that Dickson got off with Coke’s murder, which renders him despondent.

17. Notes on an Epidemic 3 – Third person narrative. The Macfarlane-Smith opiates manufacturing plant in Gorgie, a product of the Scottish enlightenment, is introduced, it’s historical development traced.

18. It Never Rains… – Narrated by Sick Boy. Janey has been anonymously grassed up for benefit fraud, and taken to prison. Confused and angry, Maria refuses to go back to her Uncle’s in Nottingham, staying alone in the house, plotting revenge on her father’s killer. Sick Boy visits and vows to help her ‘get’ Dickson. First though, he fixes himself, then her, up with heroin, and seduces her.

19. Same Again – Narrated by Tommy. Alighting from the bus he sees Lizzie McIntosh boarding. She’s his long-term object of desire, and he makes some kind of contact. He later catches up with Begbie, Renton and Davie Mitchell in the pub, along with Nelly and Larry Wylie. Begbie enlists them (but not Renton or Mitch) to come to Pilton and get the Frenchard’s, especially older karate-skilled hard-man, Ronnie. Begbie then lays siege to the Frenchard home and smashes Ronnie’s face in with an iron bar. They flee back to Leith in triumph, but on their return, Davie tells Tommy that Renton has gone away with Matty, presumably in search of heroin.

Section 3: Cold

20. Union Street – Narrated by Renton. On his Aberdeen wanders, recalling another lost weekend back in Edinburgh, Renton meets lone junky Don, who has access to skag, and thus becomes the most important relationship in his life. He starts deceiving Fiona about his drug taking, and seems to be keeping other secrets from her. When he maneuvers himself into some sort of disclosure, he tells her how sought to bring sexual relief to Wee Davie through masturbating him, only to be discovered by Billy.

21. Baltic Street – Third person narration, focusing on Sick Boy’s relationship with Maria. Both are Jonesing bad, as he crudely tries to pimp her out on the street, but she is reluctant to go into an approaching John’s car. Sick Boy reluctantly agrees instead to find clients to bring back to the house. He meets a homeless Spud, thrown out for stealing skag money from his mother’s purse, and lets him stay at the flat. He then goes to his mother’s new place in the south side and is shocked and horrified to find that his father has moved in. They argue and he gets turfed out. Desperate to prove to himself that he’s a better man than his father, Sick Boy pledges to look after Maria and take care of her. But he meets some potential clients on the way and succumbs to ‘the lure of the lira.’

22. Heavenly Dancer – Narrated by Renton. He meets Fiona in a hotel bar and dumps her, confessing that he’s a junky. She’s shocked, then hurt, then angry, departing full of scorn and contempt for him. Renton sits in the bar, fascinated by a hooker, Donna, who drinks there. Then he decides to go and see Don.

23. Supply Side Economics – Third Person narration telling the story of Russell Birch. It introduces the politics of the drug processing plant. Russell, who has been smuggling out heroin, is been uncovered, sacked and threatened with prosecution.

24. A Mature Student –Narrated by Renton, This chapter charts his relationship with Aberdeen prostitute, Donna, and his alienation from the other students and his studies at the university. Don mysteriously leaves town, and Renton, without a skag connection, heads back to Edinburgh, to stay with Sick Boy and work at Gillsland’s as a joiner.

25. House Guests – Narrated by Spud. Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Keezbo, Tommy and Spud burgle a big house. However Spud breaks his arm through falling after trying to disable an alarm simply in order that Begbie can smoke indoors. Renton and Tommy then discover that a Spanish au pair, Carmelita, is upstairs in bed, overdosed on pills and vodka in a suicide attempt. They save her, Spud taking her with him up to the A&E.

26. The Hoochie Connection – Narrated by Alison and Renton. Alison talking about the woman’s poetry group and her dislike of Kelly’s boyfriend, Des, and her relationship with Sick Boy and Harry ‘The Heterosexual Poof’ Pearce. She goes to the club where she meets Renton, who takes over the narrative. Renton chats with Alison and Harry, his former bandmate, before bullshitting some girls about his new music project in London. He notes Alison and Sick Boy sloping off and decides to go after them in case they are heading to Swanney’s for some skag. Alison resumes the narrative and learns from Sick Boy that he is shagging Maria and doing smack with her, though he couches this in terms that he’s actually the put-upon benefactor. They head to Swanney’s catching him having an argument with his skag supplier, whom Alison recognizes as Alexander’s brother’s co-worker. At this point Matty arrives and tries to get involved in Swanney’s business and an argument develops. Alison and Sick Boy leave, catching a rabid, skag-hungry Renton on the stairs, then head back to her place in Pilrig. Sick Boy tries to talk her into having anal sex, but instead she convinces him to let her fuck him with a strap-on, which he enjoys more than he expects or discloses.

27. Junk Dilemna’s 2 – Narrated by Renton. A sick Mark steals a Doctor’s script pad while trying to hustle him for painkillers.

28. Skaggirl – Third Person Narrative. Sick Boy and Maria visit Janey in prison, who is distraught when she hears of their relationship. When they go back to Leith, Sick Boy sets a drug-stunned Maria up with some more punters, one of whom, to her extreme horror, is Dickson, the killer of her father.

29. Notes on an Epidemic 4 – Third person narrative account of Bread Street needle exchange closing.

30. The Light Hurt His Eyes – Third Person narrative. Russell goes to tell his ‘partner’ and ex brother-in-law, Seeker, about his sacking from the plant. Seeker is not amused and batters Russell, tells him that he’s working for him now. Seeker realizes that the game is up and that he is no longer The Man dealing the white. He’s now simply a local distributor for the brown, which comes up from England. This passage introduces the idea of an irregular supply and a skag drought.

Section 4: Thawing

31. Seventh Floor – Narrated by Nicksy. He talks about his insomnia, having Renton and Sick Boy staying in London, and his estrangement from Marsha, an ex-girlfriend who lives upstairs in his Dalston tower block. Renton and Sick Boy argue about the Mazzola’s (Sick Boy’s Italian family), drugs and Sean Connery. They go and get fucked up, then head to a Northern Soul do at Chat’s Palace. Nicksy sees Marsha, learns that she’s pregnant with his baby.

32. Bad Circulation - Narrated by Alison. We learn that she’s befriended Maria, and delivered her to her family in Nottingham. She goes to the hospital, and witnesses the horror of her mother’s death, but has to get away from her grieving family. Then she heads to Swanney’s in shock, catching Matty lurking outside. He tells her this guy he’s been spying on is the boy who gets Swanney his gear, and she must say nothing about this. Inside, there is another Matty-Swanney conflict about Matty trying to get into Swanney’s business.

33. Northern Soul Classics – Narrated by Sick Boy. His is Soho with the posh Lucinda, describing how he got off with her by using his ‘foolproof’ card trick. He meets fellow manipulator Andreas, and his victim Hailey, and they head back to his hotel in Finsbury Park where Sick Boy encourages Lucinda to shoot heroin. Later he makes a connection with Marsha in the lift, and then not only justifies his misogynistic actions to Renton, but also tries to frame them in a radical political context.

34. Dirty Dicks – Narrated by Renton. Mark wakes up and he and Nicksy chase brown and lament defeat in the class war. Begbie phones, saying that June’s father caught them in a sexual encounter and threw her out the house so they are getting a flat together. Sick Boy tells him that Alison’s mother has succumbed to cancer, before they go to Dirty Dicks and he has to lie to Lucinda on Sick Boy’s behalf about his friend’s infidelities. They head off to Harwich for their interviews for two complimentary cross-channel ferry jobs; one with drug-dealer Marriot who plans to enlist them to mule heroin over from Amsterdam, the second, with Benson from Sealink, where will they will steward as a front for this underground activity. They are, to their astonishment, offered seasonal jobs when the ferries start in spring.

35. Hogmanay – Narrated by Renton, who is back in Leith for New Year, with Nicksy as a guest, but without Sick Boy, who has remained in London (to seduce Marsha). At a party, Begbie sings a song, which greatly moves Spud, but Franco becomes angry at the subsequent praise. They head down to Sully’s party, Renton commiserating with Alison on the recent death of her mother. At the party, Renton bangs up with Lesley and they fall asleep, petting each other but without having sex. They wake up next the morning having missed the bells, Renton being hauled down to the pub for the Hibs-Hearts game. In the pub Begbie tells him that he’s working for local gangster Davie ‘Tyronne’ Power. There’s trouble and confusion after the game, but all Renton can think of is getting up to Swanney’s for gear.

36. Notes on an Epidemic 5 – Third person narration, on the story of the shadowy figure American Andy, the ‘Johnny Appleseed’ of AIDS.

37. The Art of Conversation – Narrated by Begbie. Franco, who in passing mentions June’s pregnancy and his hatred of Cha Morrison, has been recruited by local gangster, Power, to assist in enforcing the installation of his fruit machines into pubs. Unknown to him, a dissident publican he is expected to lean on is his old ‘uncle’ Dickie. In a bizarre tale of gangster morality, Begbie ‘solves’ this dilemma by coming to an arrangement with Power and Dickie that involves copious amounts of violence and actually suits nobody, not even Franco himself.

38. Skin and Bone – Third person narration – Davie Renton arguing with his wife, Cath, who has heard from Colleen, that her son, Spud, is a heroin addict. Colleen believes that Renton, now in London, is the same, but Davie won’t hear of it. He goes out to the pub, where he has a bitter political argument with landlord Dickson and walks out. Unknown to either man, Davie’s oldest son, rootless ex-squaddie Billy, drinking in the corner with his friends Lenny and Peasbo, has witnessed this confrontation. Billy sets Dickson up to go into the adjoining yard on the pretext of ‘getting’ Davie, but then gives the unpopular landlord a savage beating. This sparks the wrecking of the pub by Lenny and Peasbo. Davie has not seen all this, but feels in despair over the argument and his home life, recalling when he and Cathy fell out over the issue of terminating her pregnancy with Wee Davie.

39. The Chute – Narrated by Nicksy. Renton and Sick Boy are doing junk, while Nicksy is tidying up, trying to forget Marsha. He sees some kids put a puppy down the rubbish chute, then goes to rescue it and foraging through the rubbish finds more than he expected, namely Marsha’s aborted phoetus, which he wraps up and will bury at sea on the boat on Monday.

40. Waters of Leith – Third person narrative of the fledgling romance of Tommy and Lizzie, who are shocked to find Begbie call on them, trying to entice Tommy into a day of violence at the Hibs-Aberdeen game. Tommy worries about Begbie getting more brutal, but calls Renton and Sick Boy to let them know about Lizzie and him. Calum Lozinska, Alison’s younger brother, is also trying to get to the game with his young casual mates. While he sneaks out after a conflict with his father, Tommy reflects on his growing disaffection from Franco and the Young Leith Team. Alison wanders, lost in sadness, and later finds Begbie in the street, confused and drunk, rambling on about the miscarriage June has suffered. They compare their losses and coping strategies. As she leaves him and heads up the Walk she witnesses the police cars and ambulance tearing down it, realizing that Begbie’s kicked off again.

Section 5: Ocean

41. Sea Dogs - Starts in Third Person narrative describing the first day at sea, the induction and agro on the boat, with supervisor Cream Shirt and West Ham fans, and introduces Charlene as object of lust for Renton and Sick Boy. Nicksy is walking around the boat, confused, the phoetus in his bag. It moves into a Sick Boy narrative as he takes advantage of chaos of the football riot to steal Cream Shirt’s wallet. It ends up with Renton narrating; he’s been skiving on the car deck, smacked out. They go to Amsterdam, and are having second thoughts about drug running for Marriot. Sick Boy and Nicksy vanish, and Renton ends up having sex with Charlene back on the boat, after learning that she’s a career thief. The next morning Marriot briefs them about their forthcoming drug mule run, for which they’re reservations deepen.

42. Nash, Stoorie, Bomb – narrated by Spud. Spud has gone to see Begbie in prison, who is on remand pending sentencing after causing the violent affray at the foot of Leith Walk. Heading back to Leith, he sees a now fit Second Prize out running. In a relationship, off the drink, Second Prize is talking to Falkirk about trials. Spud goes down to the lock-up to do some unloading for Matty, but suddenly comes over ill and collapses in the street.

43. The High Seas – Narrated by Renton. Describes his satisfactory sex with Charlene and hard work in the kitchen, with the mercurial Chef. In Amsterdam, after their shift, Renton, Sick Boy and Nicksy tell Marriot that they want no part of his scam; they also publicly humiliate him. In retrospect they consider that was not a good idea, and realize that their short-lived careers on the high seas might be coming to a premature end.

44. Desertion – Third person narration. After having to take 50 grams of heroin through customs on his own, Marriot has the lads in his sights. Renton, Sick Boy and Nicksy go back to Hackney, resolving not to return to Sealink and to steer clear of Essex. Charlene has also packed it in and she and Renton are shoplifting and horned up, when she drops a bombshell; she’s into somebody else and it’s all over between them. To the increasingly depressed Nicksy’s dismay, Renton attempts to store drugs in the freezer compartment where he keeps the phoetus (in a shoebox) he is unable to give up. He takes the box containing the phoetus out and sticks it into his Sealink bag. He goes down to the library and after some research decides that Marsha must come down and see the phoetus for herself. Charlene takes the Sealink bag, swapping it for her own, believing the Northern Soul singles are in it, before leaving Renton. Renton gets over this by shooting up heroin and giving a grandiose self-justification speech to Nicksy as to how it’s his right as a Scot. Speed psychotic, Nicksy goes upstairs to confront Marsha, determined that she’ll see the phoetus.

45. Junk Dilemna’s 1 – Narrated by Renton, who is wasted on junk when a distraught Marsha comes down and tells him that Nicksy has climbed out her window and is on the ledge. The police come, but Renton’s more concerned about the drugs in the fridge.

46. Towers of London – Narrated by Sick Boy. He’s recalling about fucking Marsha at New Year, as he reluctantly brings Lucinda, for whom he has purchased an engagement ring, to the block of flats. They are shocked to see Nicksy is hanging out the window, with the cops trying to talk him in. Marsha sees him and tries to get him involved but he doesn’t care. He finds Renton and their principal concern is their flat being full of drugs and what would happen if it got searched. Nicksy is eventually talked back inside. Unfortunately for Sick Boy, Marsha maliciously tells Lucinda they’ve been shagging, and Lucinda, to his dismay, storms off. The social worker takes Nicksy away, while Renton has a discussion with the rescue cop on life and how it gets harder.

47. Wound Botulism – Narrated by Spud, from his hospital bed. He’s helpless and mute, due to a tube down his throat as Tommy visits and the Nurse explains his condition. The second visitor is the professional drugs counselor Amelia McKerchar, who informs Spud that she’s here to help him. He looks upon her as an angel of mercy.

Section 6: Drought

48. Junk Dilemma’s 2 – Narrated by Renton. Matty is breathing badly in the flat, so Renton wakes him up. He finds Alison on the couch, soon joined by Maria and Sick Boy. All are sick and moaning. Renton discovers Maria’s friend Jenny, distraught and shivering in the hallway, and encourages her to go home. Then he and Sick Boy decide they can’t stick being inside and go out to look for some gear.

49. Notes on an Epidemic 6 – Third person, Lothian Health Board HIV list No.1

50. A Safe Port – Narrated by Renton. Now on the methadone program, but still using, Renton heads to the parental home to get records to sell. He ends up staying the night, but has an argument with his family the next day, confessing his heroin habit when confronted by his parents over lunch. He receives an invitation to Joanne and Bisto’s wedding, and recalls the sordid reality when he saw Joanne off to Paisley at the end of the European holiday. He meets Matty and Sick Boy, sells the records, then they take the piss out of Olly Curran. However, on reaching Tolcross, Swanney pockets the proceeds for previous debts, then tells them he has no skag to advance them. They head down to see Maria and her friend Jenny at a bar, with Sick Boy holding court as top predator. Nelly comes in and Renton learns that his friends Julie and Goagsie are both HIV+. Renton and Matty leave the others and opportunistically steal the Cat Protection League tin from Mrs Rylance’s shop, but can’t get it open. They take it down to the Fort flats to drop it from D floor, but see that Keezbo, Jonesing badly, has been locked out onto the balcony by his parents who have turned the house into an aivairy for their displaced, beloved caged birds. Rents free Keezbo, getting into another row with Margaret Curran. They drop the tin but have to rummage with Mrs Rylance and kids for its contents and he, Keezbo and Matty are subsequently arrested and jailed after a police chase.

51. Junk Dilemma’s 3 - Narrated by Renton from an interrogation in the police station. He does a deal and gets out signing up for the rehab program.

52. St Monans (Peer Education) – Narrated by Renton, who is struggling with the methadone, and still scoring smack with Keezbo. Matty visits him, explaining that he took the sentencing, rather than rehab option and was given a six months suspended sentence, only serving four days in prison on remand. Keezbo is taken to a rehab centre, while Renton is promised at the clinic it’ll be his turn soon. Subsequently, his parents take him to the rehab unit in Fife. When he gets there, Sick Boy, Spud and Keezbo are waiting with some others, including the sinister Seeker. Swanney gives him a fix in the toilet.

53. The Cusp – Third person narrative. Alison is now struggling with heroin addiction, and trying to hold down her job. Alexander, her boss and lover, is conscious he’s protecting her, and they have an argument. She resigns, and walks off the job, going to a pub. She reads about the spread of HIV in a newspaper, and depressed and thinking about her mother, she goes home and slashes her wrists. She realizes that it’s a mistake, and doesn’t want to die, so calls an ambulance. In hospital, she gives Alexander as a contact, and following her discharge, he looks after her, but ends the affair.

54. The Rehab Diaries – Narrated by Renton. Renton detox’s at the centre and joins the group. This lengthy, crucial chapter, stylistically different from the rest of the novel, though foreshadowed in the opening chapter, is written as his rehab diary and journal. The group politics are explored, as are the power struggles in his individual sessions with ‘superstar counselor’ Tom Curzon. Meanwhile Sick Boy is shagging confused hooker Molly, Swanney is winding everybody up, suggesting the absent Matty is a grass, Seeker declaring he’s staying clean to make proper money dealing, Renton realizing that ‘the rehab game’ is not about quitting, but detoxing to get the habit under control. For kicks he sends a spoof letter to his racist neighbours, the Curran’s, informing them they will share their flat with a Pakistani family. He plays the game, despite his conflicts with Tom, but following his release is thinking of his next fix even as he’s being driven home by his parents. White Lines on radio. They have inappropriate party for him back in Leith and he thinks of skag. Hazel is present and he has to choose between her and the drug.

55. Avanti – Narrated by Sick Boy, who, back in the mother country, seduces an Italian girl, Massima, as he recalls Renton’s stolen journal entry relating to the latter’s sex with Joanne. He learns that Massima may be pregnant, so decides to flee Italy for Scotland.

56. Chasing Brown - Narrated by Spud. Taken to a gig and backstage party by a returning Sick Boy, he ends up at the Caley Hotel, trying unsuccessfully to have sex with a well-known veteran gothic singer then succumbing to the temptation of skag, as Rents and Sick Boy are smoking it.

57. In Business – Third person narrative. Russell is down in Southend, doing a skag deal on Seeker’s behalf to bring heroin to drought-ridden Edinburgh. One of the men he is involved with is Marriot. There is a tense atmosphere with Marriot saying he had a bad experience with people from Edinburgh (presumably Sick Boy and Renton) and his more menacing boss, Gal, intimidating the nervous Russell, who makes the deal, but then, though badly fatigued, is compelled by Seeker to drive straight back to Edinburgh with the drugs.

58. Junk Dilemma’s 4 – Narrated by Renton, who first postulates his strengths before conceding to his weakness in the face of heroin.

59. Soft Cell – Narrated by Begbie from prison, who laments that he has brutally assaulted the wrong man when Renton asked him to do over a prison nonce, (whom we subsequently learn is Hazel’s father.) Nevertheless, Franco’s guilt isn’t that great as he contends that everyone will be able to have a drink and a laugh about it later.

60. Notes on an Epidemic 7 – Third person, Lothian Health Board HIV list No.2. The list contains the names of Matty and Keezbo.

61. Trainspotting In Gorgie (Or To The Gorgie Station) – Third person narration, which follows Renton waking up after a sexless night with Hazel. He is gratified he got Begbie to do her father in prison. Leaving her a tender note, he shakily goes off with Sick Boy on the hunt for skag. The drought is severe, and after stopping off at Alison’s, who is sick but holds out on her dead mother’s morphine, they call others, including the menacing Seeker, but find nothing. They are walking past the chemical plant where the morphine is made, suddenly realizing that they are casing it. They plan the break-in, with Keezbo, Spud and Matty, executing the plan that evening. They gain entry, but the alarm is raised and they have to make a hasty escape, and Keezbo is stranded in the plant, due largely to Matty. They have a hostile fall-out, with Renton and Sick Boy ganging up on Matty, and him fleeing, to be comforted by Spud. Renton and Sick Boy carry on towards the flat. Sick Boy almost confesses his treatment of Janie and Maria, but pulls back, while prompting Renton to disclose about his infidelity to Fiona with Joanne. (Which Sick Boy already knows about.) They make a heartfelt pact to get clean and never touch skag again, but as they open the door of the flat, the phone is ringing.