Choose Life Choose Leith by Tim Bell sampler
By examining the book, the play and the film, Choose Life, Choose Leith both critically analyses the Trainspotting phenomenon in its various forms, and contextualises the importance of the location of Leith and the culture of 1980s Britain. Looking in detail at the history of Leith, the drug culture, the spread of HIV/AIDs, and how Trainspotting affected drug policy, Leith and the Scottish identity, the book highlights the importance of Trainspotting. Choose Life, Choose Leith acts as a reference book, a record of the times and a background as to the history that led to the real-life situation and the publication of the book.
By examining the book, the play and the film, Choose Life, Choose Leith both critically analyses the Trainspotting phenomenon in its various forms, and contextualises the importance of the location of Leith and the culture of 1980s Britain. Looking in detail at the history of Leith, the drug culture, the spread of HIV/AIDs, and how Trainspotting affected drug policy, Leith and the Scottish identity, the book highlights the importance of Trainspotting. Choose Life, Choose Leith acts as a reference book, a record of the times and a background as to the history that led to the real-life situation and the publication of the book.
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15<br />
<strong>Tim</strong>eline<br />
1875 Hibernian fc founded.<br />
1903 <strong>Leith</strong> Central Station opened.<br />
1920 <strong>Leith</strong> amalgamated with Edinburgh.<br />
1952 <strong>Leith</strong> Central Station closed.<br />
1957 Irvine Welsh born.<br />
1964 <strong>Leith</strong> Kirkgate demolished.<br />
1971 President Richard Nixon declares drug abuse to be ‘public<br />
enemy number one’, subsequently widely referred to as the<br />
opening of his ‘War on Drugs’.<br />
1974 First new-style professional drug dealer charged in Muirhouse.<br />
1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister.<br />
1982 Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No’ first coined.<br />
April – June: Falklands War.<br />
1983 Murder of Sheila Anderson, <strong>Leith</strong>.<br />
First two known cases of hltv-3 (or Gay-Related Immuno-Deficiency<br />
Syndrome [grids]) in Scotland.<br />
1985 51 per cent of a sample of intravenous drug abusers in Muirhouse<br />
found to be hltv-3 positive.<br />
hltv-3 renamed Human Immunodeficiency Virus (hiv); and a<br />
group of symptoms that can result from an hiv infection named<br />
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (aids).<br />
1987 ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’ leaflet distributed throughout Britain.<br />
Edinburgh dubbed ‘aids Capital of Europe’ in a newspaper<br />
article.<br />
Needle exchange set up at <strong>Leith</strong> hospital.<br />
1988 Waverley Care Trust founded.<br />
1 December established as World aids Day.<br />
1989 <strong>Leith</strong> Central Station demolished.<br />
1990 John Major becomes Prime Minister.<br />
1991 Calculated per capita hiv+ people in England: 25 per 100,000;<br />
Scotland: 35 per 100,000; Lothian Region 144 per 100,000.<br />
Milestone House, Edinburgh, opened as an end-of-life hospice<br />
for hiv+ people.
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