Maddie link put Welsh's new book on hold
Saturday June 28 2008
TRAINSPOTTING author Irvine Welsh has revealed that he stopped writing his new book 'Crime' after Madeleine McCann went missing because of similarities between the case and the plotline of his story.
The writer said his book nearly didn't happen because he was unnerved by the coincidence. His book tells the story of Detective Inspector Ray Lennox who goes to Florida to escape from a horrifying child murder case in Scotland.
But while there he ends up trying to save a young girl from a paedophile ring.
"When Madeleine McCann disappeared I just stopped writing 'Crime'. It just seemed too horrible to go on," said Welsh.
"At one point I began writing and then stopped again when I was researching the book with sex abuse survivors," he added.
However, research he did with those survivors of sexual abuse had spurred him to finish the book.
UNFATHOMABLE
"To me it seemed unfathomable how someone could do those things to another human being.
"But speaking to some of the survivors it seemed that there were so many stories out there of people who had turned into abusers themselves or developed drug and alcohol addictions, but very little about those who came out the other side and made a positive contribution to society," he added.
"So with that in mind I finished the book and have an upbeat ending where two damaged people end up healing and helping one another."
The writer has been living in Dublin with his wife for the past four years, saying it is the longest time he has spent anywhere.
"I used to come to Ireland a lot when I was a kid because we had relatives in Donegal, so it wasn't an alien place to me," Welsh explained.
"I might be getting too comfortable here, so it might be time to move on."
- Conor Feehan
