Sir Ian James RankinOBEDLFRSEFRSLFRIAS[2] (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for hisInspector Rebus novels.
Born in Fife, Rankin was the first of his family to attend university, and he worked in a number of different jobs before becoming a writer. Rankin's crime novels form a major contribution to thetartan noir genre, and have won numerous British and international awards. His Rebus books have sold over 35 million copies.
Rankin was born inCardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a school canteen.[3] He was educated atBeath High School,Cowdenbeath. Neither of his parents were great readers, but Rankin enjoyed comics such asthe Beano,the Dandy,Superman andBatman, later progressing to books borrowed from the library.[4]
Rankin was the first of his family to go to university.[4] His parents were horrified when he chose to study literature, as they had expected him to study for a trade.[3] Encouraged by his English teacher, he persisted and graduated in 1982 from theUniversity of Edinburgh. There he also worked on a doctorate onMuriel Spark but did not complete it.[5]
He has taught at the university and retains an involvement with theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize.[6] He lived inTottenham, London, for four years and then rural France for six while he developed his career as a novelist.[7]
Before becoming a full-time novelist, he worked as a grape picker,swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician in a band called the Dancing Pigs.[3][8][9]
Rankin did not set out to be acrime writer. He thought his first novels,Knots and Crosses andHide and Seek, were mainstream books, more in keeping with the Scottish traditions ofRobert Louis Stevenson and evenMuriel Spark. He was disconcerted by their classification as genre fiction. TheScottish novelistAllan Massie, who tutored Rankin while Massie was writer-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh, reassured him by saying, "Do you thinkJohn Buchan ever worried about whether he was writing literature or not?"[10]
Rankin'sInspector Rebus novels are set mainly in Edinburgh. They are considered major contributions to thetartan noir genre.[11] Thirteen of the novels—plus one short story—were adapted as atelevision series on ITV, starringJohn Hannah as Rebus in series 1 and 2 (4 episodes) andKen Stott in that role in series 3–5 (10 episodes). Rankin has stated that the name of John Rebus was chosen partly in homage to fictional detectiveJohn Shaft, and because "rebus" is a kind of puzzle.[12]
Rankin has spoken in interview of how the death of his mother led to his writing his Rebus novels. He says:[13]
...you are looking at the human condition, you're trying to answer some very big questions about how the way the world is and the way human beings are so it is possible that my mum dying got me thinking in those terms.
In 2009, Rankin donated the short story "Fieldwork" toOxfam'sOx-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Rankin's story was published in theEarth collection.[14]
Rankin signing copies of his debut graphic novel,Dark Entries, in the EdinburghForbidden Planet International store in December 2009
In 2013, Rankin co-wrote the playDark Road with Mark Thomson, the artistic director of theRoyal Lyceum Theatre.[18][19] The play, which marked Rankin's play-writing debut,[20] premiered at the Lyceum Theatre,Edinburgh, in September 2013.[21]
In 2005, Rankin became the tenth best-selling writer in Britain, accounting for 10% of all crime fiction sold.[22] His Rebus books have sold over 35 million copies.[13]
He also wrote three non-Rebus crime novels in 1993-95 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey.[5]
In 2021, Rankin helped finish a draft byWilliam McIlvanney, aprequel telling the story of an early case of McIlvanney's fictional detective Jack Laidlaw. McIlvanney, whom Rankin admires, had died in 2015 leaving the manuscript unfinished. It was published under the nameThe Dark Remains.[23]
In 2022, Rankin signed a deal with publisher Orion to write two new John Rebus novels.[24] Later that year, he received aknighthood fromHM Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature and charity as part of herBirthday Honours List.
In August 2025, Rankin was a guest on theOff the Shelf podcast as part of a feature on theMcIlvanney Prize[25].
Rankin is a regular contributor to theBBC Two arts programmeNewsnight Review.[26] His three-part documentary series on the subject ofevil was broadcast onChannel 4 in December 2002. In 2005 he presented a 30-minute documentary onBBC Four calledRankin on the Staircase, in which he investigated the relationship between real-life cases and crime fiction. It was loosely based on theMichael Peterson murder case, as covered in Jean-Xavier Lestrade's documentary seriesDeath on the Staircase. The same year, Rankin collaborated with folk musicianJackie Leven on the albumJackie Leven Said.[27]
In 2007, Rankin appeared in programmes for BBC Four exploring the origins of his alter-ego character,John Rebus. In these, titled "Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh" and "Ian Rankin Investigates Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Rankin looks at the origins of the character and the events that led to his creation.
Rankin has a deep interest in music, and has used references to songs and album titles in many of his novels and chapter headings.[29]
Rankin is the singer in the six-piece band Best Picture, formed by journalists Kenny Farquharson (The Times) and Euan McColl (The Scotsman) in 2017, and featuringBobby Bluebell on guitar.[30] They released the single "Isabelle" onOriel Records in October 2017.[31] They made their live debut at theKendal Calling music festival on 28 July 2018.[32] In an interview withThe Guardian, Rankin says: "I am, of course, a frustrated rock star – I'd much rather be a rock star than a writer. Or own a record shop."[33]
Rankin lives inEdinburgh with his wife, Miranda (née Harvey), whom he met at university and married in 1986, and their two sons: John Morgan "Jack" Harvey-Rankin (born 1992) and Christopher Connor "Kit" Harvey-Rankin (born 1994). He has acknowledged the assistance the family gets fromForward Vision in Edinburgh in looking after Kit and other young adults with special needs.
Rankin appears as a character in McCall Smith's 2004 novel,44 Scotland Street.
In 2011,a group of ten book sculptures were deposited around Edinburgh as gifts to cultural institutions and the people of the city. Many of the sculptures made reference to the work of Rankin, and an eleventh sculpture was a personal gift to him.[39]
In 2019, Rankin donated his personal archives to theNational Library of Scotland after moving to his flat in the Quartermile. The Library planned an exhibition for 2021 of highlights from the archive, which includes research notes, newspaper clippings and manuscripts.[40]
Rankin has donated a considerable portion of his earnings to charity. In 2007, he and his wife set up a trust to support charities in the fields of health, art and education. In 2020, it was reported that he had donated around £1 million to the trust in the previous five years, with £200,000 being donated in 2019.[41] In 2022, he donated rare first editions of three of his early works, valued at a total of £1,850, to a book sale in aid ofChristian Aid.[42]
As of 2024[update], Rankin has published 25 novels, two short-story collections, one original graphic novel, one novella, and a non-fiction book. He has also written aQuick Reads title.
The Lie Factory, illustrated by Tim Truman. Published as part of a CD package,Kickback City, featuringRory Gallagher songs fictionalized in the novella and with narration byAidan Quinn.
"Herbert in Motion" (1996) (published inPerfectly Criminal)[46]
“Playback and talk show: new Edinburgh crimes by Ian Rankin edited with exercises and notes by Yozo Muroya andPaul Hullah” (1996) (published in Japan by University Education Press)
"The Wider Scheme" (1996) (published inEQMM, August)
"My Shopping Day" (1997) (Rebus; published inHerbert in Motion & Other Stories [limited edition chapbook of 200 copies]; not included in the UK edition ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories, but included in the U.S. edition)
"No. 79" (1997) (published in Herbert in Motion & Other Stories)
"Detective Novels: The Pact Between Authors and Readers" (1998) (article; published inThe Writer, December)
"Death is Not the End" (1998) (novella later expanded intoDead Souls)
"The Missing" (1999) (published inCrime Wave, March)
"Get Shortie" (1999) (Rebus; published inCrime Wave 2, Deepest Red, June; not included in the UK and US editions ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"The Acid Test" (1999) (Rebus; published inEQMM, August; not included in the UK and US editions ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"The Hanged Man" (1999) (published inSomething Wicked (UK) andEQMM, September/October)
"The Only True Comedian" (2000) (published inEQMM, February)
"Unlucky in Love, Unlucky at Cards" (2000) (published inEQMM, March)
"The Confession" (2000) (published inEQMM, June)
"The Slab Boys" (2000) (published inScenes of Crime)
"No Sanity Clause" (2000) (Rebus; originally titled "Father Christmas's Revenge", published inThe Daily Telegraph, December)
"Tell Me Who to Kill" (2003) (Rebus; published inMysterious Pleasures)
"Saint Nicked" (2003/2004) (Rebus; published inThe Radio Times, 21 December 2003 & 4 January 2004)
"Soft Spot" (2005) (published inDangerous Women)
"Showtime" (2005) (published inOne City)
"Not Just another Saturday" (August 2005) (Rebus; written for SNIP, a charity organisation; people in attendance of the event were provided with a "typescript" of the story)
"Atonement" (2005) (Rebus; written for the anthologyComplete Short Stories, which combined the contents ofA Good Hanging & Other Stories andBeggar's Banquet, but was far from "Complete")
"Penalty Clause" (2010) (Rebus; published inMail on Sunday, December)
"The Very Last Drop" (2013) (Rebus; written to read aloud at an Edinburgh charity event to help the work of Royal Blind; published in the US and UK editions ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"Dead and Buried" (2013) (Rebus; published withSaints of the Shadow Bible)
"In the Nick of Time" (2014) (Rebus; published inFace Off)
"The Passenger" (2014) (Rebus; published in the UK and US editions ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"A Three-Pint Problem" (2014) (Rebus; published in the UK and US editions ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"Cinders" (2015) (Rebus; published in the US edition ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
"The Travelling Companion" (2015) (novella, published by the Mysterious Bookshop, NYC; signed, lettered limited cloth edition of 26 copies and 100 numbered copies; softcover edition of 1,000 copies; published in the UK in 2016 by Head of Zeus Ltd, London)
"The Kill Fee" (2015) (published inThe New Statesman 18 December 2015—8 January 2016)
"Cafferty's Day" (2016) (Rebus; published withRather be the Devil)
"Charades" (2017) (Rebus; published inCountry Life December 13/20)
"The Rise" (2023) (published by Amazon Original Stories)
Other
"Oxford Bar" (2007) (Essay published in the anthologyHow I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors)[73]
"John Rebus" (2007) (Mysterious Profile #8, a chapbook published by The Mysterious Bookshop in NYC in a signed limited hardcover edition of 100 copies and 1,000 softcover copies; reprinted in the UK edition ofThe Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories as "Rankin on Rebus")
Ian Rankin interviews Arthur Conan Doyle (2013), published inDead Interviews[74]
William McIlvanney's final novel,The Dark Remains, based on a manuscript McIlvanney left when he died in 2015, was completed by Ian Rankin and released in September 2021.[75][76]
Alegre, Sara Martin, "Aging in F(r)iendship: 'Big Ger' Cafferty and John Rebus," inClues: A Journal of Detection 29.2 (2011): 73–82.
Horsley, Lee,The Noir Thriller (Houndmills & New York: Palgrave, 2001).
Lanchester, John, "Rebusworld", inLondon Review of Books 22.9 (27 April 2000), pp. 18–20.
Lennard, John, "Ian Rankin", in Jay Parini, ed.,British Writers Supplement X (New York & London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004), pp. 243–60
MacDonald, Erin E., "Ghosts and Skeletons: Metaphors of Guilty History in Ian Rankin's Rebus Series", inClues: A Journal of Detection 30.2 (2012): 67–75.
MacDonald, Erin E.,Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2020).
Mandel, Ernest,Delightful Murder: A Social History of the Crime Story (Leichhardt, NSW, & London: Pluto Press, 1984).
Marshall, Rodney,Blurred Boundaries: Rankin's Rebus (Amazon, 2012)
Ogle, Tina, "Crime on Screen", inThe Observer (London), 16 April 2000, Screen p. 8.
Plain, Gill,Ian Rankin’s Black and Blue (London & New York: Continuum, 2002)
Plain, Gillian, "Ian Rankin: A Bibliography", inCrime Time 28 (2002), pp. 16–20.
Robinson, David, "Mystery Man: In Search of the real Ian Rankin", inThe Scotsman 10 March 2001, S2Weekend, pp. 1–4.
Rowland, Susan, "Gothic Crimes: A Literature of Terror and Horror", inFrom Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell (Houndmills & New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 110–34.
^abcSturgis, India (26 December 2015). "If I Could See Me Now... What Your Younger Self Would Make of you Today – Ian Rankin".The Daily Telegraph. No. Weekend supplement.
^(in French)Guide des Prix littéraires, online ed.Le Rayon du Polar. Synopsis of French prizes rewarding French and international crime literature, with lists of laureates for each Prize. Grand Prix de littérature policière: pp. 18-36.
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