Ian Rankin


Sir Ian James Rankin is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector 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 the tartan noir genre, and have won numerous British and international awards. His Rebus books have sold over 35 million copies.

Early life

Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a school canteen. He was educated at Beath High School, Cowdenbeath. Neither of his parents were great readers, but Rankin enjoyed comics such as the Beano, the Dandy, Superman and Batman, later progressing to books borrowed from the library.
Rankin was the first of his family to go to university. His parents were horrified when he chose to study literature, as they had expected him to study for a trade. Encouraged by his English teacher, he persisted and graduated in 1982 from the University of Edinburgh. There he also worked on a doctorate on Muriel Spark but did not complete it.
He has taught at the university and retains an involvement with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lived in Tottenham, London, for four years and then rural France for six while he developed his career as a novelist.
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.

Career

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. He was disconcerted by their classification as genre fiction. The Scottish novelist Allan Massie, who tutored Rankin while Massie was writer-in-residence at the University of Edinburgh, reassured him by saying, "Do you think John Buchan ever worried about whether he was writing literature or not?"
Rankin's Inspector Rebus novels are set mainly in Edinburgh. They are considered major contributions to the tartan noir genre. Thirteen of the novels—plus one short story—were adapted as a television series on ITV, starring John Hannah as Rebus in series 1 and 2 and Ken Stott in that role in series 3–5. Rankin has stated that the name of John Rebus was chosen partly in homage to fictional detective John Shaft, and because "rebus" is a kind of puzzle.
Rankin has spoken in interview of how the death of his mother led to his writing his Rebus novels. He says:
...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" to Oxfam's Ox-Tales project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Rankin's story was published in the Earth collection.
In 2009 Rankin stated on BBC Radio 5 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, Dark Entries, the second release from the company's Vertigo Crime imprint.
In 2013, Rankin co-wrote the play Dark Road with Mark Thomson, the artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre. The play, which marked Rankin's play-writing debut, premiered at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in September 2013.
In 2005, Rankin became the tenth best-selling writer in Britain, accounting for 10% of all crime fiction sold. His Rebus books have sold over 35 million copies.
He also wrote three non-Rebus crime novels in 1993-95 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey.
In 2021, Rankin helped finish a draft by William McIlvanney, a prequel 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 name The Dark Remains.
In 2022, Rankin signed a deal with publisher Orion to write two new John Rebus novels. Later that year, he received a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature and charity as part of her Birthday Honours List.
In August 2025, Rankin was a guest on the Off the Shelf podcast as part of a feature on the McIlvanney Prize.

Documentaries

Rankin is a regular contributor to the BBC Two arts programme Newsnight Review. His three-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, Rankin 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. 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.
In the TV show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, he takes a trip through Edinburgh with writer/cook Anthony Bourdain.
He appeared in The Amber Light, a 2019 documentary film about Scotch whisky.

Music

Rankin has a deep interest in music, and has used references to songs and album titles in many of his novels and chapter headings.
Rankin is the singer in the six-piece band Best Picture, formed by journalists Kenny Farquharson and Euan McColl in 2017, and featuring Bobby Bluebell on guitar. They released the single "Isabelle" on Oriel Records in October 2017. They made their live debut at the Kendal Calling music festival on 28 July 2018. In an interview with The 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."

Personal life

Rankin lives in Edinburgh with his wife, Miranda, whom he met at university and married in 1986, and their two sons: John Morgan "Jack" Harvey-Rankin and Christopher Connor "Kit" Harvey-Rankin. He has acknowledged the assistance the family gets from Forward Vision in Edinburgh in looking after Kit and other young adults with special needs.
The family lived for a number of years in the Merchiston area, near the authors J. K. Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Atkinson, before moving to a penthouse flat in the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary building in Quartermile in Lauriston in 2019. The couple also own a house in Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands.
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.
In 2019, Rankin donated his personal archives to the National 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.
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. 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 of Christian Aid.

Honours and awards

Rankin was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2002 for services to literature and knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to literature and charity.