Ian Rankin

Rankin wis born in Cardenen, Fife. His faither awnt a grocery shop an his maither wirked in a schuil canteen. He wis scuiled at Beath Hie Schuil, Coudenbeith. His fowks wis scunnert whan he waled tae study literatur, as thay'd expectit him tae study fur a trade. Heezed up bi his Inglis teacher, he huild at it an graduatit in 1982 fae the Varsity o Edinburgh, whaur he wirked on a doctorate on Murial Spark forby, but didnae fienish it. He haes taucht at the varsity an retains a active pairt wi the James Tate Memorial Prize.

He bade in Tottenham, Lunnon, fur fower year than rural Fraunce fur sax year while he fordert his career as a novelist. Afore becomin a fou-time novelist, he wirked as a grape picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol resaircher, jurnalist, college secretar an punk muisicker in a baund cried the Dancing Pigs.

Rankin set oot tae be a mainstream scriever an thocht his furst novelles, Knots and Crosses an Hide and Seek wis mainstream beuks, in keepin wi the traditions o Robert Louis Stevenson an e'en Murial Spark. He wis discomfitit bi thaim bein cried genre fiction. Alan Massie, the Scots writer that tutort Rankin while Massie wis writer-in-residence, telt him "Div ye think John Buchan iver wirrit aboot whether he wis writin literatur or no?"

Rankin's Inspector Rebus novelles is set mainly in Edinburgh. Thay ur thocht tae be major contributions tae the tairtan noir genre. Ten o the novelles wis adaptit as a telly series on ITV featurin John Hannah as Rebus in series 1 an 2 wi Ken Stott as Rebus in series 3-5.

In 2009, Rankin donatit the short story "Fieldwork" tae Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, fower quairs o UK stories scrieved bi 38 authors. His story wis furthset in the "Earth" quair.

In 2009, Rankin said on Radio Five Live that he wid stairt wirk on a five- or sax-issue rin o the comic beuk Hellblazer, tho he micht turn the story intae a staund-alane graphic novelle insteid. The Vertigo Comics panel at Wondercon 2009 confirmt the story wid be a graphic novelle, Dark Entries, the seicont release frae the company's Vertigo Crime imprint.

In 2011, ten sculptures makit o beuks wis anonymously left in places in Edinburgh. Three o the sculptures uised Rankin's beuks as bases, bein Exit Music, Knots and Crosses, an Hide and Seek. Ainither ane o the sculptures depictit a cinema audience, wi ane o the audience memmers bearin Rankin's face. A final eleveint sculpture, makit frae a copy o Rankin's novelle The Impossible Dead, wis gien tae him on the 25 November 2011.

In 2013, Rankin co-wrate the play Dark Road wi Mark Thomson, the artistic director o the Royal Lyceum Theatre. The play, that wis Rankin's furst time scrievin a play, furst shawed at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in September 2013.

In 2005, Ian Rankin wis pit forrit as the tent best sellin writer in Britain, accoontin fur 10% o aw crime fiction selt. He writes unner the name Jack Harvey as weel.

Rankin aften contributes tae the BBC Two arts programme Newsnight Review. His three-pairt documentary series on the subjeck o ill wis braidcast on Channel 4 in December 2002. In 2005 he kytht in a 30-mintie documentary on BBC Four cried Rankin on the Staircase, whaur he speirt oot the relationship atween real-life cases an crime fiction. It wis lowsely based on the Michael Peterson murther case, as kivert bi Jean-Xavier Lestrade's documentary series Death on the Staircase. The same year he jynt wi fowk muisicker Jackie Leven on the album Jackie Leven Said.

In 2007, Rankin kytht in twa programmes fur BBC Four titled "Ian Rankin's Hidden Edinburgh" and "Ian Rankin Investigates Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", explorin the oreegin o his chairacter John Rebus an the events o his creation.

He kytht in the telly shaw Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, takin a trip throu Edinburgh wi writer/ceuk Anthony Bourdain.

Rankin is the singer o the sax-piece baund Best Picture, foondit bi jurnalists Kenny Farquharson (The Times) an Euan McColl (The Scotsman) in 2017, and featurin Bobby Bluebell on guitar. Thay released a single "Isabelle" on Oriel Records in October 2017. Thay makit their live furst shaw at the Kendal Calling muisic fest on 28 July 2018.

He bides in Edinburgh wi his wife Miranda, that he met at varsity and waddit in 1986, an thair twa loons John Morgan "Jack" Harvey-Rankin (born 1992) an Christopher Connor "Kit" Harvey-Rankin (born 1994). Thay bade in the Merchiston/Morningside area fur a curn years, near aboots the authors JK Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Atkinson, afore flittin tae a penthouse flat in the umwhile Edinburgh Royal Infirmary biggin in Quartermile in Lauriston. The couple awns a hoose in Cromarty in the Scots Hielands forby. Rankin appears as a chairacter in McCall Smith's 2004 novel, 44 Scotland Street.

In 2019, Rankin gied his personal archive tae the National Librar o Scotland efter flittin tae his flat in the Quartermile. The Library is plannin a shawin fur 2021 o hielichts frae the archives, that includes resairch jottins, newspaper clippins, an manuscripts.

• 1988 Elected Hawthornden Fellow
• 1991 Chandler-Fulbright Award
• 1994 CWA Short Story Dagger for A Deep Hole
• 1996 CWA Short Story Dagger for Herbert in Motion in Perfectly Criminal
• 1997 CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction for Black and Blue
• 1997 Edgar Award for best novel, shortlist, Black and Blue
• 1999 University of Abertay Dundee honorary doctorate
• 2000 University of St Andrews honorary doctorate
• 2000 Palle Rosencrantz Prize (Denmark)
• 2002 Officer of the Order of the British Empire fur services tae literatur
• 2003 University of Edinburgh honorary doctorate
• 2003 Whodunnit Prize (Finland)
• 2003 Grand Prix du Roman Noir (France)
• 2004 Edgar Award for Resurrection Men
• 2005 CWA Lifetime Achievement Award (Cartier Diamond Dagger)
• 2005 Open University honorary doctorate
• 2005 Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (France) fur Set in Darkness
• 2005 Deutsche Krimi Prize (Germany), fur Resurrection Men
• 2006 University of Hull honorary doctorate
• 2007 The Edinburgh Award
• 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Author of the Year, fur Exit Music.
• 2009 Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, shortleetit Exit Music
• 2012 Specsavers National Book Award, Outstanding Achievement
• 2015 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• 2016 UNESCO City of Literature Visiting Professor at University of East Anglia
• 2016 RBA Prize for Crime Writing fur Even Dogs in the Wild, the warld's maist lucrative crime fiction prize at €125,000.
• 2016 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Edited anthology

• Criminal Minded (2000) (edited an wi an introduction bi Rankin)

Recordins

• Jackie Leven Said (Cooking vinyl, 2005), wi Jackie Leven
• The Sixth Stone (CD, 2007), wi Aidan Moffat, on Ballads of the Book
• This Has Been the Death of Us (7th Realm Of Teenage Heaven, 2009), wi Saint Jude's Infirmary
• The Third Gentleman (BBC Broadcast, 25 October 1997. 87mins). Black comedy set in 1790s Edinburgh
• The Deathwatch Journal (Audiobook / BBC Broadcast, 2017. 75mins). Read bi Jimmy Chisholm.

Graphic novelles

• Dark Entries (September 2009) wi art bi Werther Dell'Edera. Furthset bi Vertigo Crime an featurin John Constantine o Hellblazer.

Graphic novella

• The Lie Factory, illustrated bi Tim Truman. Furthset as pairt o a CD package, Kickback City, featurin Rory Gallagher sangs fictionalized in the novella an wi narration bi Aidan Quinn

Opera

• Gesualdo, wi Craig Armstrong (2008)

Short stories

• "Summer Rites" (1984) (furthset in Cencrastus, No. 18 - actual a section o Rankin's furst novelle)
• "An Afternoon" (1984) (furthset in New Writing Scotland No. 2) (slichtly revised version furthset in OxCrimes, 2014)
• "Voyeurism" (1985) (furthset in New Writing Scotland No. 3)
• "Colony" (1986) (furthset in New Writing Scotland No. 4)
• "Scarab" (1986) (furthset in Scottish Short Stories 1986)
• "Territory" (1987) (furthset in Scottish Short Stories 1987)
• "Remembrance" (1988) (furthset in Cencrastus, Spring)
• "Playback" (1990) (Rebus; furthset in Winter's Crime 22; reprinted in A Good Hanging & Other Stories, 1992)
• "Talk Show" (1991) (Rebus; furthset in Winter's Crimes 23)
• "The Dean Curse" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Being Frank" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Concrete Evidence" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Seeing Things" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "A Good Hanging" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Tit for Tat" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Not Provan" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Sunday" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Auld Lang Syne" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "The Gentlemen's Club" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "Monstrous Trumpet" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in A Good Hanging & Other Stories)
• "In the Frame" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in Winter's Crimes 24)
• "Trip Trap" (1992) (Rebus; furthset in 1st Culprit)
• "Marked for Death" (1992) (furthset in Constable New Crimes 1)
• "Well Shot" (1993) (Rebus; furthset in 2nd Culprit; nae included in the UK an US editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "Video, Nasty" (1993) (furthset in Constable New Crimes 2)
• "Castle Dangerous" (1993) (Rebus; furthset in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, EQMM, October)
• "Someone Got to Eddie" (1994) (furthset in 3rd Culprit)
• "Facing the Music" (1994) (Rebus; furthset in Midwinter Mysteries 4)
• "A Deep Hole" (1994) (furthset in London Noir)
• "The Serpent's Back" (1995) (furthset in Midwinter Mysteries 5)
• "Adventures in Babysitting" (1995) (furthset in No Alibi an in Master's Choice Two)
• "Principles of Accounts" (1995) (furthset in EQMM, August)
• "Window of Opportunity" (1995) (Rebus, furthset in EQMM, December)
• "Natural Selection" (1996) (furthset in Fresh Blood)
• "Herbert in Motion" (1996) (furthset in Perfectly Criminal)
• "The Wider Scheme" (1996) (furthset in EQMM, August)
• "My Shopping Day" (1997) (Rebus; furthset in Herbert in Motion & Other Stories [limited edition chapbook o 200 copies]; nae included in the UK edition o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories, but included in the U.S. edition)
• "No. 79" (1997) (furthset in Herbert in Motion & Other Stories)
• "Glimmer" (1998) (furthset in Blue Lightning)
• "Unknown Pleasures" (1998) (furthset in Mean Time)
• "Detective Novels: The Pact Between Authors and Readers" (1998) (article; furthset in The Writer, December)
• "Death is Not the End" (1998) (novella later expanded intae Dead Souls)
• "The Missing" (1999) (furthset in Crime Wave, March)
• "Get Shortie" (1999) (Rebus; furthset in Crime Wave 2, Deepest Red, June; nae included in the UK an US editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "The Acid Test" (1999) (Rebus; furthset in EQMM, August; nae included in the UK an US editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "The Hanged Man" (1999) (furthset in Something Wicked (UK) an EQMM, September/October)
• "The Only True Comedian" (2000) (furthset in EQMM, February)
• "Unlucky in Love, Unlucky at Cards" (2000) (furthset in EQMM, March)
• "The Confession" (2000) (furthset in EQMM, June)
• "The Slab Boys" (2000) (furthset in Scenes of Crime)
• "No Sanity Clause" (2000) (Rebus; originally titled "Father Christmas's Revenge, furthset in The Daily Telegraph, December)
• "Tell Me Who to Kill" (2003) (Rebus; furthset in Mysterious Pleasures)
• "Saint Nicked" (2003/2004) (furthset in The Radio Times, 21 December 2003 & 4 January 2004)
• "Soft Spot" (2005) (furthset in Dangerous Women)
• "Showtime" (2005) (furthset in One City)
• "Not Just another Saturday" (August 2005) (wrate fur SNIP, a charity organisation; people in attendance o the event wur gien a "typescript" o the story)
• "Atonement" (2005) (written fur the anthology Complete Short Stories, that combined the contents o A Good Hanging & Other Stories an Beggar's Banquet, but wis far frae "Complete")
• "Sinner: justified" (2006) (furthset in Superhumanatural)
• "Graduation Day" (2006) (furthset in Murder in the Rough)
• "Fieldwork" (2009) (furthset in Ox-Tales)
• "Penalty Clause" (2010) (Rebus; furthset in Mail on Sunday, December)
• "The Very Last Drop" (2013) (Rebus; written tae read aloud at an Edinburgh charity event tae help the work o Royal Blind; furthset in the US an UK editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "Dead and Buried" (2013) (Rebus; furthset wi Saints of the Shadow Bible)
• "In the Nick of Time" (2014) (Rebus; furthset in Face Off)
• "The Passenger" (2014) (Rebus; furthset in the UK an US editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "A Three-Pint Problem" (2014) (Rebus; furthset in the UK an US editions o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "Cinders" (2015) (Rebus; furthset in the US edition o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories)
• "The Travelling Companion" (2015) (novella, furthset bi the Mysterious Bookshop, NYC; signed, lettered limited cloth edition o 26 copies an 100 nummered copies; softcover edition o 1,000 copies; furthset in the UK in 2016 bi Head of Zeus Ltd, London)
• "Meet & Greet" (2015) (furthset in The Strand XLVI)
• "The Kill Fee" (2015) (furthset in The New Statesman December 18, 2015—January 8, 2016)
• "Cafferty's Day" (2016) (Rebus; furthset wi Rather be the Devil)
• "Charades" (2017) (Rebus; furthset in Country Life December 13/20)

Ither

• "Oxford Bar" (2007) (Essay furthset in the anthology How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors)
• "John Rebus" (2007) (Mysterious Profile #8, a chapbook furthset bi the Mysterious Bookshop in NYC in a signed limited hardcover edition o 100 copies an 1,000 softcover copies; reprinted in the UK edition o The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories as "Rankin on Rebus")
• Ian Rankin interviews Arthur Conan Doyle (2013), furthset in Dead Interviews

• Alegre, Sara Martin,"Aging in F(r)iendship: 'Big Ger' Cafferty and John Rebus," in Clues: A Journal of Detection 29.2 (2011): 73–82.
• Horsley, Lee, The Noir Thriller (Houndmills & New York: Palgrave, 2001).
• Lanchester, John, "Rebusworld", in London 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", in Clues: 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)
• Nicol, Christopher, "Ian Rankin's 'Black & Blue'", Scotnote No.24 (Glasgow: ASLS Publications, 2008)
• Ogle, Tina, "Crime on Screen", in The 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", in Crime Time 28 (2002), pp. 16–20.
• Robinson, David, "Mystery Man: In Search of the real Ian Rankin", in The Scotsman 10 March 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.