Ian Rankin
Born	(1960-04-28) 28 April 1960 (age 52) Fife, Scotland
Pen name	Jack Harvey
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	Scottish
Period	1984–present
Genres	Crime fiction
Notable work(s)	Inspector Rebus Dark Entries
www.ianrankin.net

Ian Rankin, OBE, DL (born 28 April 1960 in Cardenden, Fife), is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.

Background[link]

He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he moved to Tottenham, London^[1] for four years and then rural France for six while he developed his career as a novelist. He was a Literature tutor at the University of Edinburgh, where he retains an involvement with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

The 'standard biography' of Rankin, a Scot, states that before becoming a full-time novelist he worked as a grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician.^[2][3]

He lives in Edinburgh with his wife Miranda and their two sons Jack and Kit.

Writing[link]

Rankin did not set out to be a crime writer. He thought his first novels Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek were mainstream books, more in keeping with the Scottish traditions of Robert Louis Stevenson and even Muriel Spark (the subject of Rankin's uncompleted Ph.D. thesis). He was disconcerted by their classification as genre fiction. Scottish novelist Allan Massie, who tutored Rankin while Massie was writer-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh, reassured him by saying, who would want to be a dry academic writer when "they could be John Buchan?"^{[citation needed]}

Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels are set mainly in Edinburgh. They are considered major contributions to the Tartan Noir genre. Ten of the novels were adapted as a television series on ITV, starring John Hannah as Rebus in Series 1 & 2, with Ken Stott taking on the role for Series 3-5.

In 2009, Rankin donated the short story "Fieldwork" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Rankin's story was published in the Earth collection.^[4]

Ian Rankin signing copies of his debut graphic novel Dark Entries in the Edinburgh Forbidden Planet International store.

In 2009 Rankin stated on Radio Five Live that he would start work on a five- or six-issue run on the comic book Hellblazer, although he may turn the story into a stand-alone graphic novel instead. The Vertigo Comics panel at WonderCon 2009 confirmed that the story would be published as a graphic novel called Dark Entries, the second release from the company's new Vertigo Crime imprint.^[5][6][7]

Documentaries[link]

He is a regular contributor to the BBC Two arts programme Newsnight Review. His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2002. In 2005 he presented a 30-minute documentary on BBC Four called Rankin on the Staircase, in which he investigated the relationship between real-life cases and crime fiction. It was loosely based on the Michael Peterson murder case, as covered in Jean-Xavier Lestrade's documentary series Death on the Staircase. The same year he collaborated with folk musician Jackie Leven on the album Jackie Leven Said.

In 2007, Rankin appeared in programmes for BBC Four exploring the origins of his alter-ego character, John Rebus. 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.

In the TV show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, he takes a trip through Edinburgh with writer/cook Anthony Bourdain.

Awards and honours[link]

• Elected Hawthornden Fellow
• Won the Chandler-Fulbright Award.
• Two Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Dagger prizes for short stories
• 1997 the CWA Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction for Black and Blue (which was also short-listed for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best novel).
• 2002, made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the Golden Jubilee Queen's Birthday Honours for services to literature.
• 2004, Edgar Award for Resurrection Men.
• 2005, CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger to mark a lifetime's achievement in crime writing.
• 2008, ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Author of the Year, for Exit Music.^[8]

He has honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh,^[9] the University of Abertay Dundee, the University of St Andrews and, in 2005, from the University of Hull.

Rankin's novel Exit Music was shortlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award 2009.^[10]

Bibliography[link]

To date he has written at least 25 novels, 2 short story collections, 1 Original Graphic Novel and 1 non-fiction book. He has also written an entry into Quick Reads 2009:

Other publications[link]

Recordings

• Jackie Leven Said (Cooking vinyl, 2005), with Jackie Leven
• The Sixth Stone (CD, 2007), with Aidan Moffat, on Ballads of the Book
• This Has Been the Death of Us (7th Realm Of Teenage Heaven, 2009), with Saint Jude's Infirmary
• The Third Gentleman (BBC Broadcast October 25, 1997. 87mins.) Black comedy set in 1790s Edinburgh.

Graphic novels

• Dark Entries (September 2009) with art by Werther Dell'Edera. Published by Vertigo Crime and starring John Constantine of Hellblazer.^[12][13]

Short stories

• An Afternoon (1984) (published in New Writing Scotland)
• Voyeurism (1985) (published in New Writing Scotland)
• Colony (1986) (published in New Writing Scotland)
• Territory (1987) (published in Scottish Short Stories 1987)
• Trip Trap (1992) (published in 1st Culprit)
• Marked for Death (1992) (published in Constable New Crimes 1)
• Well Shot (1993) (published in 2nd Culprit)
• Someone Got to Eddie (1994) (published in 3rd Culprit)
• A deep hole (1994) (published in London Noir)
• Adventures in Babysitting (1995) (published in No Alibi and in Master's Choice Two)
• Natural Selection (1996) (published in Fresh Blood)
• Auld Lang Syne (1997) (published in The Orion Book of Murder)
• Principles of Accounts (1997) (published in Mystery's Most Wanted)
• Death is Not the End (1998) (novella later expanded into Dead Souls)
• The Hanged Man (2000) (published in The World's finest mystery and crime stories)
• Saint Nicked (2003) (published in 2 numbers of Radio Times)
• Soft Spot (2005) (published in Dangerous Women)
• Not just another Saturday (August 2005) (written for SNIP, a charity organisation)
• Atonement (2005) (written for the anthology "Complete Short Stories")
• Sinner: justified (2006) (published in Superhumanatural)

Criticism[link]

• Horsley, Lee, The Noir Thriller (Houndmills & New York: Palgrave, 2001).
• Lanchester, John, ‘Rebusworld’, in London Review of Books 22.9 (27/4/2000), 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
• Mandel, Ernest, Delightful Murder: A Social History of the Crime Story (Leichhardt, NSW, & London: Pluto Press, 1984).
• Nicol, Christopher, 'Ian Rankin's 'Black & Blue' Scotnote No.24 (Glasgow:ASLS Publications, 2008)
• Ogle, Tina, ‘Crime on Screen’, in The Observer (London), 16/4/2000, Screen p. 8.
• Plain, Gill, Ian Rankin’s Black and Blue (London & New York: Continuum, 2002)
• Plain, Gillian, ‘Ian Rankin: A Bibliography’, in Crime Time 28 (2002), pp. 16–20.
• Robinson, David, ‘Mystery Man: In Search of the real Ian Rankin’, in The Scotsman 10/3/2001, S2Weekend, pp. 1–4.
• Rowland, Susan, ‘Gothic Crimes: A Literature of Terror and Horror’, in From Agatha Christie to Ruth Rendell (Houndmills & New York: Palgrave, 2001), pp. 110–34.

Notes[link]

1. ^ Rankin, I. (1998) Tooth & Nail. London: Orion, p.vii
2. ^ "Profile: Ian Rankin", January Magazine
3. ^ "Ian Rankin", Bookslut, April 2005
4. ^ "Ox-Tales". Oxfam.org.uk. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/content/books/books_oxtales.html. Retrieved 2010-11-04. 
5. ^ "WC: Vertigo - Innovative and Provocative". Comic Book Resources. 1 March 2009. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20252. Retrieved 2009-03-02. 
6. ^ "Starting Vertigo's Crime Line: Ian Rankin on Dark Entries". Newsarama. March 25, 2009. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030925-Vertigo-Rankin.html. 
7. ^ Duin, Steve (April 7, 2009). "Ian Rankin vs. Brian Azzarello". The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/04/ian_rankin_vs_brian_azzarello.html. 
8. ^ Allen, Katie (2008-10-06). "Rankin and P D James pick up ITV3 awards". theBookseller.com. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/68347-rankin-and-p-d-james-pick-up-itv3-awards.html. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
9. ^ "University of Edinburgh Honorary Degrees 2002/03". University of Edinburgh. 28 August 2003. http://www.ed.ac.uk/explore/people/honorary/2002.html. 
10. ^ "Shortlist for Theakston’s Crime Novel of the year Award 2009". digyorkshire.com. 2009-06-02. http://www.digyorkshire.com/HighlightDetails.aspx?Article=202. Retrieved 2009-06-17. 
11. ^ http://www.ianrankin.net/pages/news/index.asp?NewsID=53
12. ^ "Ian Rankin Newsletter". Ianrankin.net. http://www.ianrankin.net/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=97. Retrieved 2010-11-04. 
13. ^ "Karen Berger On The Vertigo Crime Line". Newsarama.com. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080815-VertigoCrime.html. Retrieved 2010-11-04. 

References[link]

• Nicol, Christopher: Ian Rankin's 'Black & Blue': Scotnote No.24, ASLS Publications,2008

External links[link]

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• Official website
• Ian Rankin at the Internet Movie Database
• Ian Rankin's new novel sees the Return of Malcolm Fox 12 April 2011
• Ian Rankin at Contemporary Writers (British Council)
• Macavity's Interview^{[dead link]}
• Guardian Books profile, with links to further articles.
• The Reykjavík Grapevine Interview^{[dead link]}
• Ian Rankin at Edinburgh Central Library, Oct 2010 (video interview in several parts)
• CNN interview with Ian Rankin
• 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show (1 hour)
• Two BooksfromScotland.com interviews with Ian Rankin
• Ian Rankin's introduction to the 2007 edition of^{[dead link]} James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner