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Madeleine McCann: Irvine Welsh, French T-Shirts And A Halo

MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann

SUNDAY HERALD: “I don’t believe we get rewarded or punished, but I believe we have a responsibility to try to get the best out of life and make it comfortable for other people”

IRVINE WELSH arrives at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin carrying a holdall in two-tone, light beige leather; it gives the impression that he has just walked in from a picnic. Natural atrium light swamps his head and in a flash he’s almost on top of me, swapping his bag from one set of fingers to another and shaking my hand. His face contorts: he is an hour and a bit late and he’s sorry.

A halo?

Welsh’s jacket is reversible yellow. His T-shirt, in French, says “What would you do if this was the end of the world?” Well? “I don’t know,” he says, apparently uninspired by the question he is advertising.

Well, he could plug his new book: Crime:

“It’s the most difficult thing to write about,” says Welsh. “Child sex abuse tests the limits of our liberalism to the full. You have the whole idea of whether rehabilitation is possible or even desirable.” He was about halfway through the first draft when the Madeleine McCann story broke and forced him to stop writing for two months. “I couldn’t look at the novel or at the newspapers,” he says. “I thought I was never going to finish the book.”

Fact and fiction - can you spot the difference?

Anorak

Posted: 23rd, June 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (318) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink