The clues were there

He’s penned more than 20 novels but Rebus author Ian Rankin still recalls the first time he saw his name in print.

The law section, deep within the basement of Waterstones flagship book store in Edinburgh, is lined with shelves straining under weighty titles such as The Scots Law of Succession and Scots Criminal Law.

Here in the heart of the capital, the shop is bustling with tourists taking a break from tours of the city’s elegant and historic buildings.

Few seem to notice the multi-award winning Scots author seated quietly in their midst – a man who has made a living from portraying the grittier, darker side of Edinburgh that lurks behind its tartan and bagpipes façade.

It’s 30 years since Ian Rankin’s first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, was published. The tale of brutal abduction and murder launched the fictional career of hard-drinking, domestically-inept John Rebus who has become one of the best known detectives not just in UK crime fiction, but around the world.

Now, more than 20 novels later, his creator has joined forces with publisher Orion Books to announce details of RebusFest, which will take place in Edinburgh from June 30-July 2.

The city, Rankin’s home, will host a diverse programme, including a whisky masterclass, an evening of spoken word and music, a crime writing workshop, a quiz and other interactive events.

The gathering, supported by the Edinburgh International Book Festival, National Museums Scotland, the City of Literature Trust, Edinburgh International Film Festival and Highland Park, will celebrate the phenomenon of the grumpy detective who, as well as appearing in the novels and an array of short stories, has been dramatised on radio and played on television by John Hannah and Ken Stott.

Quite what Rebus would make of the adulation is anyone’s guess but as Rankin sits down for a chat with The Courier, he grins when he confesses his “hero” might never have made it past that first novel.

“I actually killed him off in the first draft, so for someone who was only supposed to exist in a single novel, his tenacity has surprised even me,” reveals the 56-year-old.

“Readers have grown to love him, irascible and bull-headed as he often is. It’s a joy for me to be celebrating his life so far in the form of his very own festival. What John would make of it, only he knows.”

Like Rebus, Rankin is a proud Fifer who now plies his trade in Edinburgh but whose close-knit roots remain at the core of everything he does.

However, the author insists that’s pretty much where the similarities between the pair end. “Rebus is a Fifer,” says Rankin. “He comes from the same mining town as me – in Cardenden. In fact if you want to get parochial I grew up in Bowhill

“There were four villages. Auchterderran, Bowhill, Cardenden and Dundonald – ABCD – and I was

Readers have grown to love him, irascible and bullheaded as he often is. It’s a joy to be celebrating his life so far

definitely Bowhill. We would have fights with the Cardenden kids.

“But while he (Rebus) left school at 15, I kept going.

“It’s also fair to say I would have made a terrible detective. I’m terrible at working in organisations. I don’t take orders. And I don’t work collegiately. I can’t work in a team. Mind you, he’s hopeless at it as well.”

Rankin vividly recalls the day in March 1985 when, as a postgraduate student living in Edinburgh, the idea for Rebus “just jumped into” his head.

It was the day he’d gone to sign the contract for his first novel, The Flood, with Polygon Books, which at that time was owned by Edinburgh University students’ association.

“I was sitting in my digs, just staring into space in front of my gas fire, and I just got the idea for this guy being tormented by secret messages – knotted pieces of string and little matchstick crosses that were supposed to mean something to him,” he recalls.

“I put down in the notes ‘main character may be a cop’. And that was it. I just started from there. Rebus means picture puzzle, which is why he was called Rebus. He just jumped into my head and refused to leave.”

While The Flood was set in the fictitious Fife mining town of Carsden and featured a number of characters which were, on reflection, a bit too close to home – “Everyone in Cardenden thought they could see themselves in that book,” he laughs – Rebus was placed in Edinburgh and the capital became something of a “buffer” to distance the young author from his roots.

It was an inspired move with Rankin going on to win accolades including four Crime Writers’ Association

Pictures: Steve MacDougall, PA and Sarah Burns. Clockwise from main image: a collection of Ian Rankin books, including his first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses; Ken Stott who played Rebus on TV; Ian Rankin speaks to his former teacher Ron Gillespie while signing copies of his book in Dunfermline;...