Skagboys is a 2012 novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is a prequel to his 1993 novel Trainspotting, and its 2002 sequel Porno. It follows the earlier lives of characters Renton and Sick Boy as they first descend into heroin addiction.
Background
When Welsh described the novel he said: "I think I’m going to call it Skag Boys: "skag" is my favourite word for heroin. It's set before their fall into heroin and investigates how the main characters became junkies, the family dynamics, the anxieties of young men. A lot of the fringe characters become more prominent".
"I had a great deal of material that for various reasons, namely pace and because it didn't fit with the timeframe, wasn't suitable for the book. There's a particular section about Renton and Sick Boy's first visit to London to stay with their friend Nicksy in Hackney that I always wanted to publish, but it was just a bit too long for magazines and anthologies. So I've pulled back some of the other unused Trainspotting material and put alongside this piece. The thing is basically a prequel to Trainspotting. It's basically about how Renton and Sick Boy went from being daft young guys just out for the buzz on drugs, to total junkies. It shows how their attitudes and behaviour start to change as they become more defined by the drug and the culture around it".
In 2012, Welsh said the prequel was actually initially written as part of Trainspotting but was not used in the published version. He later decided he would either erase his old work or use it in some way, as "he had a fear that he might fall under a bus and leave behind 'half-written stuff' which people would publish". He said, "I just went through it and started writing on the basis of what was there, getting inspired by what I was reading and chopping bits out and putting bits in. Before I knew it I had another novel on my hands".
Plot summary
The novel begins in Yorkshire in 1984, where Mark Renton and his father Davie have travelled to join a picket of the coke plant. Mark is shaken after getting caught in the violence, and he travels to Manchester, where at a party he is offered heroin, which he refuses. In the Banana flats, Sick Boy decides to seduce his neighbours' daughter, Maria. He goes to the pub with her father, Coke, but they are ejected by the violent, ex-cop landlord Dickson
Renton, Begbie, Spud, Tommy and Keezbo are watching football in a pub when teenage Samantha Frenchard arrives and confronts Begbie over her pregnancy. Renton and Sick Boy visit Swanney, a drug dealer, and Renton takes heroin for the first time. Samantha's family begin planning revenge on Begbie for his dismissive response to the pregnancy.
Sick Boy and Coke visit Dickson's pub again, but Dickson beats Coke unconscious, and he later dies in hospital. Renton moves in with Sick Boy. At a drug den in Muirhouse, Alison tells Renton that her mother is dying; her friend Sylvia takes Renton home to Lochend for sex. Renton later gives Spud his first hit of heroin. Alison learns that her boss's brother is involved in drug smuggling, and seduces her boss.
During an Aberdeen University trip to Europe, Renton begins a relationship with his classmate Fiona. Returning home, he learns that his brother has died. Amid tensions between Renton and his family during funeral preparations, Fiona arrives and soothes the situation. Meanwhile, with Maria in Nottingham, Sick Boy seduces her mother Janey and encourages her to fraudulently claim Coke's pension. Begbie stabs one of Samantha's brothers.
While Dickson is cleared of Coke's murder, Sick Boy secretly reports Janey for benefit fraud and she goes to prison, while Sick Boy takes Maria under his control. Begbie, Tommy, and others go to Pilton and besiege the Frenchard family's home, culminating in Begbie smashing her brother Ronnie's face with an iron bar.
In Aberdeen, Renton meets Don, who becomes his heroin connection. His relationship with Fiona deteriorates and eventually ends due to his heroin use. Sick Boy pimps Maria to support their heroin addictions, and lets homeless Spud stay at his flat. When Don leaves town, Renton moves back to Edinburgh to also stay with Sick Boy.
Renton, Sick Boy, Begbie, Keezbo, Tommy and Spud attempt a burglary, but interrupt a Spanish au pair, Carmelita, during an attempted suicide. Later, Alison, Renton and Sick Boy go to Swanney's after a club, and Alison recognises a worker from the chemical plant supplying heroin to Swanney. Alison takes Sick Boy home to Pilrig, where they engage in pegging. Sick Boy and Maria visit Janey in prison, who is distraught at their relationship. Back in Leith, Sick Boy connects a drugged Maria with more clients, including Dickson.