The Beano is ‘a gateway drug’ for reading: Rankin

Crime writer Ia n Rankin has given a tongue-in-cheek description of the Beano as “a gateway drug” for reading.

The Fife-raised author also revealed he grew up stealing notepads from school to pen stories.

Rankin, 60, whose Rebus novels are international bestsellers, grew up in a house with barely any books, but used to read the Beano and The Dandy.

He described comics as “affordable literacy for kids”, and said writing was like “playing with his imaginary friends” – but joked that if he had achieved success in his 20s he would have had baths filled with Champagne and gold-plated pinball machines.

Rankin said: “Comics used to be a ff o r d a b l e literacy for kids.

“They were a few pennies and for a few pennies you’d be reading a story that would keep you occupied for a while and you could then swap them with your friends.

“We didn’t have many books in the house, neither of my parents was a reader, but I was allowed to indulge my hunger for comics and I would get seven or eight a week.

“There was no bookshop in the village but there was a newsagents that sold comics and it was The Dandy and the Beano, The Victor and The Hotspur, then later it was 2000 AD.

“I’m still a huge fan of comic books. I think it’s a gateway drug to novels and a gateway drug to storytelling per se.”

Speaking to the Blank podcast, he said he hid his enthusiasm for writing to avoid being perceived as “weird” by friends and family in the coalmining village of Cardenden.

He added: “Wh e n

I started writing in my early teens, about 1973-74, it was in stolen school jotters, the lined jotters you got for schoolwork. I would nick them from English.

“As soon as I could, I got a t y p e w r i t e r, a little portable from my sister’s mail order catalogue and was supposed to pay her back 50p a week or something.”

Rankin, who lives in Edinburgh, added: “If the first novel had been a big hit it would have been Champagne- filled baths and gold- plated pinball machines but I’d written my first book at 26 and by the time I was financially secure I was 40.

“Thank God, it did as this is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do. I find it therapeutic, cathartic and good fun.

“It’s basically me being a kid again, playing with my imaginary friends.”

FAN: Ian Rankin said he was a voracious reader of comics as a child – and is still a huge fan.