Ian Rankin reflects on 30 years of Rebus
● Contest prize led to author meeting agent who published first Rebus novel
An exhibition of Ian Rankin’s work in Edinburgh includes his first published story from the pages of The Scotsman, as well as books and manuscripts. This weekend he celebrates 30 years of Rebus with a series of events
It was the break that paved the way for one of Scotland’s most celebrated literary creations.
Ian Rankin was a PHD student at Edinburgh University in 1983 when he submitted a short story to The Scotsman for a competition. Second place saw it appear in print – sparking a chain of events which led to the publication of the first Rebus novel.
Now the story, The Game, about two factory workers who were laid off on the same day, has seen the light of day again in a new exhibition devoted to Rankin’s work.
It has been given pride of place at the Writers’ Museum in Edinburgh along with a host of other material from the author’s personal archive.
Other highlights include a letter from Rankin’s first agent telling him the first Rebus novel had been rejected by five publishers, along with the original manuscript for that book, Knots and Crosses.
The exhibition also reveals the deal to publish Knots and Crosses was worth £1,500, that Rebus was nearly relocated to London and played by Eastenders star Leslie Grantham on television – and that the character was initially killed off in the first book.
The exhibition, which features some of Rankin’s earliest interviews and reviews, has been staged to coincide with the first Rebusfest – three days of talks, workshops, tours and film screenings, to celebrate Rankin’s 30 years of writing about the Edinburgh cop.
Rankin had just started his PHD on the work of Muriel Spark when he saw a story published for the first time, in September 1983. The tale was designed was to help his work catch the eye of his first editor, Euan Cameron, who offered Rankin a publishing deal for Knots and Crosses.
Rankin said yesterday: “I couldn’t honestly tell you where The Game came from. It was about two guys who were laid off from the same shipyard in the same day. One of them was management and the other one was a welder. They meet up at a snooker hall and have a brief conversation about what it means to them.
“It was the first short story that made me any money. It was phenomenal to see it published. Allan Massie [author and journalist] was a judge for The Scotsman competition. He introduced me to Euan Cameron, who eventually took on Knots and Crosses. Allan Massie also took on another short story of mine for the Edinburgh Review, which he edited at the time.”
Fife-born Rankin was given feedback from publishers that he was “just on the wrong side of the market” and that crime fiction “might not be the best place for you to start”. But Cameron signed him for publisher Bodley Head and Rebus made his debut in 1987.
Rankin added: “£1,500 wasn’t a lot of money in those days, but it was more than I was used to. When there was the TV interest, they were talking about £25,000, which was enough to buy a flat at the time.
“Leslie Grantham and a producer he worked with on Eastenders had got a hold of Knots and Crosses not long after it was published. They wanted to move the action to London. I was delighted.
“I wasn’t going to write another Rebus novel. I only wrote another one years later after Euan Cameron said to me, ‘Whatever happened to that guy Rebus?’”