成人快手

Arguably one of the most famous literary characters to make a return is the fiendishly difficult to decipher detective Sherlock Holmes, and his trusty sidekick and narrator Dr John Watson.

The super sleuth first made an appearance in 1887 in the novel A Study in Scarlet and from there you need analytical prowess akin to that of Baker Street’s most famous resident to follow the detective’s trajectory in print.

Creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote three further novels, in 1890, 1902 and then a huge gap before The Valley of Fear appeared in 1915, but in between fans devoured Sherlock and Dr Watson’s adventures in short stories commissioned by The Strand magazine.

But Conan Doyle, a prolific writer of long form stories and poetry, was fearful Sherlock would overshadow his other works so he killed him off in 1893, as reported by Dr Watson in The Final Problem.

The aptly titled The Return of Sherlock Holmes appeared in 1905, yet three years earlier the ghostly goings-on in The Hound of the Baskervilles had appeared as a serialisation, again in The Strand, reminding the author just how loved his cunning creation was.

The pipe-smoking, deerstalker-wearing problem-solver remains the most frequently depicted character to make it from page to the big and small screen.

You just have to say ‘Trainspotting’ and one of two images are conjured up. Either a dedicated, sedentary past-time of locomotive logging on Britain’s railway platforms or a pounding, shaved-headed Ewan McGregor footchase, possessions (well, actually not his initially) spilling onto the Edinburgh pavement set to a driving Underworld soundtrack in Danny Boyle’s cinema classic.

But of course, McGregor’s character Renton, along with Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are the creation of Irvine Welsh in his first novel published in 1993.

Almost ten years later, we’re reintroduced to their murky world, which is in a similar chaotic fashion, in the best-seller Porno.

But Welsh said he never meant for Porno to be a sequel to Trainspotting. “Nikki was originally the main character, her boyfriend was an older guy called Steve. When I got half-way through it I realised that he was Sick Boy and I had to just go with that,” he says on his website. “Of course, I then found that I couldn't tell his backstory without working out what had happened to the rest of them.”

Interestingly he goes on to say that the book would have been better without the baggage of the Trainspotting characters, yet they make another welcome return in the subsequent Trainspotting prequel Skagboys.

Anne Rice’s series about the tortured vampire Lestat de Lioncourt produced runaway bestsellers even before the story was immortalised (see what I did there) on screen with the neck-biter and his protégé Louis being played by Hollywood royalty Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.

Tom Cruise as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire (c) Getty Images

I made a conscious choice to go back, to re-read the books, to think about him again and to see if his voice would come back to me if I had new stories to tell

Anne Rice

It seemed The Vampire Chronicles were complete in 2003 with the 11th book Blood Canticle. Yet in 2014 he returned in Prince Lestat and this year the anti-hero proves he may yet be with us for an eternity as Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis hits the bookshelves.

Talking to Smashing Interviews magazine, Rice said: “It’s hard to sum up in a few words. I felt that when I finished Blood Canticle (2003) that I was finished. I thought that was it. I felt I didn’t have any more stories to tell for Lestat, and I associated him with a lot of different things that happened to me over the years, and I was moving on from that.

I don’t know how to explain it except that I made a conscious choice to go back, to re-read the books, to think about him again and to see if his voice would come back to me if I had new stories to tell.

I discovered that I had a ton of new stories to tell. I think it was good to lay off for ten years and to let the world change and let myself change and pass through a period of grief and spiritual exploration, and then go back and take a fresh look.”