crimeculture
'If I used that in my book nobody would believe it':
Interview with Ian Rankin
Sarah Halls
First published by the South London Guardian
One day a man was mowing his lawn when a stone got caught in the blades. He bent down to get it out. While he was kneeling on the grass he happened to look across at ground level to some nearby bushes. He saw a pair of adult feet facing some smaller feet in the undergrowth. The small feet were lifted into the air and there was a little squeak. The man was just in time to see a white van drive off and took its registration number.
He rang the police, who happened to spot the same vehicle on a dual carriageway and pulled it over. They asked if they could look in the back of the van and found a rolled-up carpet that was moving. Inside, the child was still alive, saved from becoming what would have been the serial murderer’s eighth victim.
But this isn’t the latest plot from an Ian Rankin book. It actually happened, and that is what is so annoying according to Ian, who was speaking at the SW11 Literary Festival in September.
He says: “If I used that in my book nobody would believe it. The extraordinary thing is that real life does not have to be realistic, but my books do.”
Ian learned early on that it was dangerous to link his stories too closely to actual events. When he was researching his first novel, Knots and Crosses, he wrote to Edinburgh’s chief constable to ask if he could interview some policemen. He was granted permission and went to his local police station. Ian says:
“I was an English Literature student at the time and must have walked in looking like a tramp.
“I told them I was writing a book about a murder and they went along with it, asked me into the interview room and started questioning me. I thought I’d play along, and gave them a stripped-down version of Knots and Crosses. Unbeknown to me, they were investigating a real-life crime that was practically identical.
“They started asking me what I was doing on the night of November 10. I was getting really into it by this point and said I went out drinking and couldn’t remember the rest.”
Ian later found out he was the only suspect.
In his latest book, Fleshmarket Close, Inspector Rebus investigates the murder of an illegal immigrant on an Edinburgh housing estate. Ian says he wanted to address the great Scottish myth that Scots have no room in their hearts for racism:
“There was this idea that we were so preoccupied with religious bigotry between the Catholics and Protestants that other races could come in without us noticing. But then someone in Edinburgh was stabbed to death in a racist attack. We need immigration in Scotland. We can’t offer things like free university education and free care for the elderly if there aren’t enough people to pay tax.
“But here we are locking asylum seekers up in big centres. I wanted to write a book that dealt with that and also the fact that everybody has a touch of racism in them. It’s just how you deal with it.”
In the book, Rebus moves to a new police station. Ian says this was so he would feel like an outsider and be able to identify with the victim. But he admits he had also received a smug email from an Edinburgh policeman that said: “St Leonard’s doesn’t have a CID anymore. Ha, ha, ha.”
Far from being annoyed by his fans’ obsession with Rebus, Ian says it is a great help. One of them has made a database of all the characters in the Rebus books while another is setting up a website about Rebus’ music tastes. Fans constantly ask how Ian thought of the name Rebus for his central character. He says:
“I first came across it when I was little. I used to do the quiz page in the newspaper and always liked the rebus puzzles, where the words make a secret message. Then, when I moved back to Edinburgh, I walked into a bar near my house and this man introduced himself to me as Joe Rebus. He was the only male Rebus in Scotland and told me it was Polish. That was it - I decided I had to use the name.”
Ian, who was born in Fife in 1960, is in good literary company in Edinburgh. He lives near JK Rowling and is two doors down from Alexander McCall Smith, who makes him feel very guilty. He says: “Whenever I walk past his house I see him there, tapping away on his typewriter. It doesn’t seem to matter what time I go past, he’s always writing. But I know how he does it now. He has an alarm rigged up that goes off every time I walk down the street: ‘Rankin’s Coming! Rankin’s Coming!’”
Ian had an unconventional introduction to writing. He has worked as a grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist and punk musician. His first foray into fiction only got him into trouble. He decided to enter a school poetry competition and got a book out of the library on how to write them:
“The book said write about what you know and feel strongly about. My Aunt Jenny ruled the family with a rod of iron at the time. So I wrote about euthanasia and the mercy killing of the elderly. I won second prize but she went ballistic.
“Then I entered a short story competition on our local radio. This time I decided to write about my uncle, who was quite influential in our town and ran the local newspaper. He was also an alcoholic and had a penchant for taking his clothes off and walking through town. I wrote Walking Naked, which won first prize. But it went out on the radio and I learned my first useful lesson - write about what you don’t know.”
Ian knew nothing about the police and so Inspector Rebus was born. But fans will be disappointed to know that he only plans to do two more Rebus books. As the story is written in real time, Rebus doesn’t have long left until he retires at 60:
“I don’t know what the next book will be about but I do know Rebus has four years left. If I’ve got a better book I want to write that isn’t about Rebus then I will - but not until I’ve finished paying my mortgage.”
Copyright © 2004 by Sarah Halls
SARAH HALLS was a reporter for the South London Guardian when she conducted this interview. She now lives and works in Geneva.