Trainspotting (novel) grown eloquent". The novel has since achieved a cult status, added to by the global success of the film based on it, "Trainspotting" (1996), directed by Danny Boyle. Welsh wrote a sequel, "Porno", in 2002. "Skagboys", a novel that serves as a prequel, was published in April 2012. The novel is split up into seven sections: the first six contain multiple chapters of varying length and differing focus. The novel's origins in short fiction are still visible though no segment or chapter is wholly independent of the others. The majority of the stories are narrated by the novel's central protagonist,
David Irving where he was met at the airport by Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. According to Zündel, Irving "thought I was 'Revisionist-Neo-Nazi-Rambo-Kook!'", and asked Zündel to stay away from him. Zündel and his supporters obliged Irving by staying away from his lecture tour, which consequently attracted little media attention, and was considered by Irving to be a failure. Afterwards, Zündel sent Irving a long letter in which he offered to draw publicity to Irving, and so ensure that his future speaking tours would be a success. As a result, Irving and Zündel became friends, and Irving agreed in late 1987 to testify