MALCOLM BURGESS takes a sideways look at what the publishers' back cover blurbs really mean. This week - Irvine Welsh.
Britain's most brilliant and controversial youth author - Eat your heart out Mr Martin mid-life crisis and that's a nice bit of orthodontry - did it cost you very much? - Amis.
A cast of inimitable characters - People who would have been burnt at the stake not so long ago.
Inspired a whole new generation of writers - Chiefly graffitists.
More than a book - We don't want to call this literature in case it puts off readers who think it's an e-handbook.
Powerful and disturbing - Regular Wet Wipe users might not get beyond page two.
About Britain today - Depressing.
The book that defines the nineties - Pass the Prozac.
Sexually explicit - Although for some of the characters their main problem is premature evacuation.
Now a major film - Just in case you've been hiding in that cupboard again.
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