Rebus raises the bar

Detective Inspector John Rebus may be a work of fiction, but his sleuthing – as chronicled by Ian Rankin – takes place in a Scotland readers will find familiar. The curmudgeonly detective likes to spend his time in Edinburgh, propping up the Oxford Bar – a tavern in the city centre – “with an IPA in his hand and his feet resting on the rail”. However, fans would not have been able to put their feet up like their hero until the pub’s quick-thinking landlord fitted a footrail.

The watering hole has long been favoured by the Caledonian literati, including Sydney Goodsir Smith and Quintin Jardine. Mr Rankin, a patron since the mid-eighties, need not be embarrassed to have “misremembered” it. His fellow pub goers can now enjoy the embellished bar he envisaged. Truly, one man’s imagination can spark inspiration.