A LIFE OF CRIME: REBUS IN PRINT AND ON SCREEN
INSPECTOR John Rebus made his debut in Ian Rankin’s second novel, Knots and Crosses, which was published in March 1987.
The Fife-born author had begun writing novels while he was supposed to be working towards a PHD in Scottish literature at Edinburgh University.
Rankin was said to have been surprised that the first Rebus thriller was classified as crime fiction when he had set out to write a modernday version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Rankin has admitted Rebus was actually killed off in the first draft of Knots and Crosses and he was persuaded by his publisher to revive the character in another novel.
The character has appeared in a further 20 novels since then, despite an apparent swan song more than a decade ago in Exit Music, which signalled his official retirement from the force.
However, after a five-year hiatus, Rankin has gone on to revive the character in another four novels, which have seen Rebus help serving detectives to investigate unresolved “cold cases.”
As well as the new stage play, Rankin is about to publish a brand new Rebus novel, In a House of Lies.
More than 30 million Rebus novels are believed to have been sold around the world, while the books have been translated into 36 different languages to date.
The most recent Rebus novel, Rather be the Devil, topped the best-seller charts for hardback fiction when it was released in November 2016.
New Rebus novels are said to sell as many as half a million copies within just a few months of printing.
Rankin, his publisher Orion and the Edinburgh International Book Festival marked the 30th anniversary of the detective last year by staging a three-day festival in the character’s home city.
The first “Rebusfest” included masterclasses, workshops, tours, live music and film events, and an exhibition of rarely-seen archive material.
Rankin’s novels have previously been adapted for television by STV Productions, with John Hannah and then Ken Stott playing the leading role.
However production was brought to a halt in 2008 amid reports Stott had decided he did not want to continue in the role.
It was announced last year that Gregory Burke, the writer of the hit plays Gagarin Way and Black Watch, was working on a new “contemporary adaptation” of Rebus for TV.
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival this year, Rankin revealed that a much younger actor than Stott was likely to play the role when Rebus returns to the nation’s TV screens. The character was said to be 50 when he first appeared in Knots and Crosses.
Other actors to play Rebus include Ron Donachie, who starred as the detective in Radio 4’s dramatisations of some of the novels, while James Macpherson, who is best-known for his longrunning role in Taggart, has narrated audiobook versions of the novels.
Rankin, who was awarded the OBE in 2002 for services to literature, has been the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Hull and Edinburgh.
Brian Ferguson