The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs [Paperback]

Praise for Irvine Welsh:
" The poet laureate of the chemical generation."
- "The Face"
" Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing for decades."
- "Sunday Times"
" A pure writer, producing staggering feats of storytelling... the skill of a master."
- "Independent"
" One of the most original writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit and force."
- Nick Hornby, "Times Literary Supplement"

‘In the outrageous and exhilarating foul-mouthed book, Welsh once again uses the demonic to create serious comedy.’

'A carefully considered blend of three-dimensional realism an expertly judged modern gothic horror...you never doubt his plot for a moment.’

"This year the black magic misanthropy of Irvine Welsh's The
Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs amused me."

'its power holds up from start to explosive finish.' - Karl Miller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

'Welsh gives more than a passing nod to Dorian Gray in this latest outing ... in a supernatural twist Welsh unleahes his usual irresistible mayhem' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

"...this, his eighth work of fiction since Trainspotting, has all the ingredients of his earlier success. I found it funny, dark and readable, showing the author on good form" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

`typically scabrous and outrageous' --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Troubled Environmental Health Officer Danny Skinner is engaged on a quest to uncover what he refers to as 'the bedroom secrets of the master chefs'. He regards the unraveling of this classified information as the key to learning genetic facts about himself and the crippling compulsions that threaten to wreck his young life. The ensuing journey takes him from Europe's festival city of Edinburgh to the foodie capital of America, San Francisco. But the hard-drinking, womanizing Skinner has a strange nemesis in the form of model-railway enthusiast Brian Kibby. It is his unfathomable, obsessive hatred of Kibby that takes over everything, threatening to destroy not only Skinner and his mission but also those he loves most dearly. When Kibby contracts a horrific and debilitating mystery virus, Skinner understands that his destiny is inextricably bound to that of his hated rival, and he is faced with a terrible dilemma. "The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs" is a gothic parable about the great obsessions of our time: food, sex and minor celebrity, and is a brilliant examination of identity, male rivalry and the need to belong in the world.

The first Irvine Welsh novel in three years

'An exquisitely paced black comedy. It has clever and funny things to say. There was a rumour that Welsh’s last novel, Porno was to be his last. You'll be glad it wasn't Evening Standard

At Edinburgh's Department of Environmental Health, hard-drinking, womanising officer Danny Skinner wants to uncover secrets: 'the bedroom secrets of the master chefs', secrets he believes might just help him understand his self-destructive impulses. But the arrival of the virginal, model-railway enthusiast Brian Kibby at the department provokes an uncharacteristic response in Skinner, and threatens to throw his mission off course. Consumed by loathing for his nemesis, Skinner enacts a curse, and when Kibby contracts a horrific and debilitating mystery virus, Skinner understands that their destinies are supernaturally bound, and he is faced with a terrible dilemma...
'Bedroom Secrets Flickers with the dynamism, black humour and imaginative bravado that is Welsh at his best' Financial Times

'Vintage Welsh: brilliant, graphic, with frequent forays into the grotesque' Sunday Tribune
'Rattles along with impressive energy' Daily Telegraph

'A beautifully controlled novel' Literary Review
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Irvine Welsh is the author of seven works of fiction, most recently Porno. He lives in Dublin.