IAN RANKIN

I’M NOT sure where Detective Inspector John Rebus came from.Well, he came from inside my head. I was 25 years old and studying literature at the University of Edinburgh. I wanted to write a contemporary gothic story, something that would connect the world of Jekyll and Hyde (a book I was obsessed with) to the current day. I also wanted to write about my home city, and I realised that a detective meant I could include all the different layers of society, from those at the top to those at the bottom of the pile.As a cop, Rebus would deal with all of them. His name means “puzzle” and he would solve crimes in order to stop him thinking too much about the puzzles and failures in his personal life. He was only meant to exist for the span of a single book, Knots and Crosses, but he burrowed deep into my brain.We’ve been together now for more than 30 years – he’s been played on television by John Hannah and Ken Stott – and he still intrigues and surprises me. I enjoy watching him explore the landscape of retirement and trying to make himself useful in the hope he still has a role to play and mysteries to unravel.

●●A Song For The Dark Times by Ian Rankin is out now in paperback. Ian curates the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate from July 22

SURVIVORS: DI John Rebus, played by Ken Stott, left, was never meant to last beyond his first book, but is going strong 30 years on