Irvine Welsh on Scotland, Jamaica and David Bowie

'I've seen Leith Walk in all it's different incarnations'

San Francisco (Ianni Dimitrov Pictures/Alamy )

As a child I used to go to Kinghorn Beach in Fife.
It was a day trip really, but it felt like I was there for weeks and weeks. After that, my first memory of going away was Blackpool, which felt very exotic at the time. We’d go on the bus, with all my relatives. We were left to run wild on the beach. There was something great and clannish about it. I’ve had a fondness for Blackpool ever since - I even had my stag do there.

Holidays are made by who you’re with.
The whole point of travel is getting away with people you like. I love travelling with my wife, she’s so much fun and great company. I’ve got certain friends too, who I know I’ll always have a great time with. I’ve been to Afghanistan after fall of Taliban and Sudan during the civil war, but the people I was with, kept my spirits up.

I’ve seen Leith Walk in all its different incarnations.
As an office worker, walking through the morning grime; when I’ve been bar-hopping in Edinburgh; on the way to football games; and at my lowest, as a drug user, hustling up and down. I’ve even seen it as yuppie MBA student, catching the number 22 bus to campus. You meet all walks of life there. It’s a strange place.

I can’t be bothered to drag books around on holiday.
I load up a Kindle instead. I read things like economic books by Yanis Varoufakis that are critical of our current predicament; I’m interested in what comes next. I’m always reading sociology books too, about how we move on and what might follow. All the topics I used to hate, like climate change and politics, I’m getting more into. The situation is becoming more acute, so you can’t just stand aside. People should take more interest.

Irvine Welsh (Jeffrey Delannoy)

I live in Chicago now, but there are lots of great cities across America.
Like San Francisco, where I used to live. Money has changed it though and it has become very vulnerable. The Tenderloin [district] loses a block every year. New York is a bit Disneyfied around Times Square, but there’s still a vibe, which comes down to the pure physicality of it. And in New Orleans too, you can have a lot of fun.

Kingston in Jamaica is a bit like Clark Kent and Superman.
Quiet in the day, with no one on streets, but by night it comes alive. There’s loads going on - big parties and dance halls. The Jamaican writer Marlon James was in town at the same time, so we went to a party. It gets on my nerves that people say you get hassled in Jamaica. Everyone was so friendly.

Luxury means being able to pick up the phone, book a ticket and go somewhere on the spur of the moment.
In Jamaica, I stayed in really luxurious, decadent places, and also very basic hostel-type places. I like to mix it up. I can kip on the floor or a bad mattress for a couple of days, because you do have to rough it a bit if you want to see less touristy places.

My fantasy travel companion would be David Bowie.
He’s sadly missed, but would have been great company. I’m sure he would have had great insights. You want to be with someone who allows themselves to be changed by new places. I have a friend from back home, who’s always grumpy and resistant when we go away. You think, “This is going to be a nightmare”. Eventually though, he becomes enraptured. By the end, he’s going: “Scotland’s rubbish - I’m not going back there!”

Guinea pig in Peru is like unsatisfactory Kentucky Fried Chicken.
They flatten it out and deep-fry it. I couldn’t eat a lot. Luckily, my friend ate most of it. Not my cup of tea.

Irvine Welsh’s latest novel, The Blade Artist, is published by Jonathan Cape