SOURCE: A review of Filth, in Observer (London), No. 10,791, August 9, 1998, pp. 14–15.

In the following review of Filth, Taylor finds Welsh's Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson a dull and revolting main character.

Conceivably, Filth could be filthier. It could, for example, have real worms, or lice or maggots, eating their way through its pages rather than the imaginary one which is gobbling up the novel's protagonist, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, gnawing away at him like the Ebola virus. That, however, might be asking readers to stomach more than they are capable of holding down. For Filth as Irvine Welsh's publisher accurately points out, is a book that does not contravene the Trades Description Act. Few books fulfil the promise of their titles so graphically.

DS Robertson is the ‘filth’ in question, a member of the Lothians and Borders police force, with whom the novelist enjoys, at best, an ambivalent relationship...