Sir Ian Rankin has revealed that an underworld figure once said he planned to get the author's help to become a crime writer, leaving him nervous for quite some time. The creator of Inspector Rebus said the man was interviewed in prison and asked what he would do when he got out. "He said he was going to become a crime writer – and the way he was going to do this was to get Ian Rankin to help him," Sir Ian said. "I was nervous for quite some time that he would track me down."
Meeting criminals at book launches
The author, born in Cardenden, Fife, never set out to become a crime writer himself. He saw his first Rebus book, Knots and Crosses (1987), as in keeping with the Scottish traditions of Robert Louis Stevenson and even Muriel Spark. As his popularity grew, he immersed himself in his subject matter, visiting jails, interviewing convicts, and occasionally giving talks in prison libraries.
Sir Ian, 66, said villains usually see it as flattering to have themselves depicted in books. But he recalled one person who he thought might be problematic. "It was a real person I had thinly disguised in one of my books, and they came along to the launch. They sat in the front row with the book on their lap, tapping it, and pointing at me, and nodding. And I thought 'I'm in trouble here,'" he said. "But they came up to me afterwards and we chatted, and they were absolutely fine."
Stressing the need to "be very discreet", Sir Ian could not go into more detail. He added that the man was a member of a crime family who would eventually be prosecuted.
Keeping track of gangland atmosphere
It is no wonder he spends more time meeting cops rather than criminals to keep track of the current gangland atmosphere. He explained: "You get the little bits and pieces of slang they would use between each other. If you use a little bit of that, people think 'oh, he knows what he's talking about.' And procedures, because procedures continue to change, and the stuff I write can be out of date before I publish it. So they'll give me that, and also just anecdotes, just ridiculous things that have happened to them."
That attention to detail has made Inspector Rebus a popular character. Now well past retirement age, the policeman has appeared in 25 books as well as TV dramas for both the BBC and ITV. He has been played by John Hannah, Ken Stott and, most recently, Richard Rankin (no relation), who stars in BBC series Rebus. Sir Ian is reluctant to pick a favourite portrayal. "Oh, that's brutal," he laughed. "I love all my children equally."
He was, however, pleased when, during the COVID lockdown, he finally got Brian Cox – the actor from Succession, not the astrophysicist – to do a monologue about how Rebus would cope with lockdown for the National Theatre of Scotland. "They persuaded him. We just did it via Zoom. So that was wonderful," he said.
Latest audiobook nominated for award
The detective also goes down a storm with fans of audiobooks, which have seen him brought to life by the likes of Taggart star James MacPherson. Sir Ian's latest is Cully & more, a collection of his acclaimed writing for BBC radio. It has just been nominated in the Best Audiobook: Crime and Thriller category – supported by the Daily Star – at the British Audio Awards.
Sir Ian said: "These are mostly radio plays and short stories that go back five, 10, 20 years, but they've been gathered together and they seem to have done well. Things I can barely remember writing. I'm a big fan of audiobooks. Audio is getting bigger every year, so people are recovering these audio projects that had been and gone, as it were."
He added that he would never be tempted to record his own stories, preferring to rely on the likes of Scottish actor Alexander Morton, who narrates Cully & more. "It's very seldom the author doing it," he said. "I've been asked if I would do audio books and I go 'no, because I can't do a range of voices'. The only voice I can do is my voice. I've got a lot of respect for actors who can take on an audiobook and get us completely engaged with the story."
