Ian Rankin & Inspector Rebus
Page 21
I would just like to give thanks to all the people who have provided a bit of serendipity for me in the writing of this book.
Craig Cabell
Blackheath, London
June 2009
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Craig Cabell was a freelance journalist and writer for 20 years. He spent five years as an in-house reporter at Focus, the house journal of the Ministry of Defence, and has written 15 books as a biographer and historian. He is an expert on rare and collectable fiction, from Charles Dickens to Ian Rankin, and wrote several regular wine columns for different magazines as well as travelling the world, from Kuwait to Venezuela, for government services. Some of his previous books, such as Operation Big Ben, the anti-V2 Spitfire Mission 1944-45 (with Graham A Thomas) and Ian Fleming’s Secret War, have attracted much praise. His previous books with John Blake, James Herbert – Devil in the Dark, Snipers (with Richard Brown) and Getting Away with Murder (with Lenny Hamilton), have showcased his diversity and specialist skills in literature, small arms and true crime. He lives in London with his wife and three children.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
BOOKS BY CRAIG CABELL
Frederick Forsyth – A Matter of Protocol, the Authorised Biography
The Kray Brothers – The Image Shattered
James Herbert – Devil in the Dark, the Authorised True Story
Operation Big Ben – The Anti-V2 Spitfire Missions 1944-45 (with Graham A Thomas)
VE Day – A Day to Remember (with Allan Richards)
Snipers (with Richard Brown)
Dennis Wheatley – Churchill’s Storyteller
Getting AwayWith Murder (with Lenny Hamilton)
Witchfinder General – the Biography of Matthew Hopkins
Ian Fleming’s Secret War – Author of James Bond
The History of 30 Assault Unit – Ian Fleming’s Red Indians
Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus
Captain Kidd (with Graham A Thomas and Allan Richards)
Blackbeard (with Graham A Thomas and Allan Richards)
The Doctors Who’s Who
CHAP BOOKS
Dennis Wheatley and the Occult
Black Sniper (fiction)
I Was Alive Then – The Spike Milligan Interviews
The Grapes of MoD – Ten Years of Wine Consumption
30 Assault Unit User Manual
Tales of Verona
The Curse of the Baskervilles
William – A Marine’s Story
Robert Heinlein – The Complete UK Bibliography and Collector’s Guide
Stephen King – Illustrated UK Bibliography and Collector’s Guide
Ian Rankin Illustrated UK Bibliography and Collector’s Guide
A Christmas Vampire (fiction)
Why Did I Ask Them Around to Dinner? (fiction)
The Arms Dealers Arms
Stories with Wine
SPECIAL INTRODUCTIONS
Furies Over Korea – the story of the men of the Fleet Air Arm, RAF
and Commonwealth who defended South Korea
1950-1953 by Graham A Thomas
Firestorm, Typhoons Over Caen, 1944 by Graham A Thomas
Terror from the Sky – the Battle Against the Flying Bomb by Graham A Thomas
The Biography of Dan Brown by Graham A Thomas
NOTES
1 Author interview 14 January 2002.
2 From ‘The Tracks of my Years’ by Andrew Preston, Night & Day, Association Newspapers, 24 October 2004.
3 Author interview 14 January 2002.
4 See Introduction to Beggars Banquet and segment that forms the introduction to The Scotsman Exclusive Souvenir Paperback Celebrating 20 Years of Inspector Rebus.
5 A very interesting pastime for die-hard Rankin fans, is spotting Dr Who/SF references throughout Ian’s work (several times at least, see Black and Blue, special intro to Knots and Crosses and others).
6 See Rebus’s Scotland – A Personal Guide (Orion, 2005).
7 Artworks Scotland – When Ian Rankin met Jack Vettriano (2009).
8 Artworks Scotland – When Ian Rankin met Jack Vettriano (2009).
9 Author interview 14 January 2002.
10 Author interview 14 January 2002.
11 Author interview 26 July 2009.
12 See Rankin/Leven’s CD Jackie Leven Said.
13 For a concert at Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, in August 2004, Rankin read a short (non-Rebus) story about a young man made good, who returns to his home in Fife to attend the funeral of his mother. Although Jackie Leven Said is not exactly autobiographical, it has tiny fragments of autobiography mixed in with the fiction, such as being allowed to sneak into the cinema under age even though the ticker seller was a neighbour and knew he was under age. But there is a more important point: the isolation of the main character amongst his own kin. This seems to mirror Rankin’s own feelings of his formative years [Jackie Leven Says – Jackie Leven and Ian Rankin, Cooking Vinyl 2005].
14 Author interview 14 January 2002.
15 Author interview 14 January 2002.
16 Author interview 14 January 2002.
17 Author interview 14 January 2002.
18 Author interview 14 January 2002.
19 Author interview 14 January 2002
20 Author interview 26 July 2009.
21 Rebus’s Scotland – A Personal Journey (Orion, 2005).
22 Author interview 14 January 2002.
23 Author interview 14 January 2002.
24 From ‘The Tracks of my Years’ by Andrew Preston, Night & Day, Association Newspapers, October 24 2004.
25 Author interview 26 July 2009.
26 Angelman Syndrome (AS) is a neuro-genetic disorder that occurs in 1 in 15,000 live births. AS is often misdiagnosed as Cerebral Palsy or Autism. Characteristics of AS include developmental delay, lack of speech, seizures, and walking and balance disorders. Individuals with Angelman Syndrome will require life-long care. www.angelman.org; www.angelmanuk.org; www.scotgen.orguk/documents/angelman.pdf
27 Strangely, when Rankin started a new series of books with The Complaints (Orion, 2009), he went back to using fictitious Edinburgh pubs out of loyalty to The Oxford Bar.
28 Author interview 26 July 2009.
29 Interestingly in 2004 Rankin told me – and other reporters – that he would never consider re-issuing his first published novel The Flood, but did so later that year. He also went on to re-release his third published novel Watchman.
30 All quite serious stuff at the time; if Rankin thought he was the next Frederick Forsyth is uncertain, however, it does go some way to show that he didn’t concentrate solely on Rebus after his initial idea in 1985.
31 It must be appreciated that there is much humour in the Rebus series; it maybe black humour, but it is there. Also, any interview with Rankin is light-hearted and fun, so comedy could be something he could naturally gravitate too, even today.
32 See Introduction to The Flood (Orion, 2005).
33 In 2009, Rankin contributed a short story to an anthology (in support of the One City Trust) called Crimespotting, published by Polygon.
34 Author interviews conducted 1999 and 2001 respectively.
35 It may explain why the reader didn’t find out more about Rebus’s character so early on; Rankin had already done it and kept it to himself!
36 It is noted that the latest Rebus paperbacks have special introductions nowadays but haven’t been meticulously re-edited for uniformity.
37 Author interview 11 November 2000.
38 Author interview 26 July 2009.
39 Superintendent Watson was nicknamed the Farmer because of his north of Scotland background and his, at times, agricultural methods (see ‘The Dean Curse’, A Good Hanging and Other Stories, Century, 1992).
40 Rankin has since stated that the one thing he really disliked about London was commuting.
41 When I spoke to editors and publici
ty staff at Headline (and also Rankin and his agent) concerning the print run of the Jack Harvey books, I was told that a ballpark figure between 1,000 and 3,000 copies (probably nearer the latter) was printed for each Jack Harvey novel in hardback.
42 Author interview 26 July 2009.
43 Jacket blurb to first UK edition (Orion, 1993).
44 Author interview 26 July 2009.
45 If readers wish to know more regarding the East End perception of the killing of Jack McVitie and other murders perpetrated by the Kray Twins, may I refer them to Getting Away With Murder, Lenny Hamilton with Craig Cabell (John Blake, 2007).
46 Rebus is also beaten black and blue in the novel!
47 Author interview 26 July 2009.
48 Author interview 26 July 2009.
49 Author interview 26 July 2009.
50 Something Rebus doesn’t believe in but Rankin does.
51 ] Author interview 26 July 2009
52 www.npia.police.uk
53 Author interview 14 January 2002.
54 Author interview 14 January 2002.
55 Author interview 14 January 2002.
56 The Evening News.
57 Author interview 20 August 2009.
58 Author interview March 2001.
59 Author interview March 2001.
60 Rankin has told me (author interview 5 November 2004) that Frederick Forsyth ‘was an inspiration to me when I was a teenager – reading his thrillers and hoping I might even write my own one day.’ Something Rankin did as Jack Harvey and much earlier with Watchman.
61 Author interview March 2001.
62 Author interview March 2001.
63 Author interview March 2001.
64 Author interview March 2002.
65 Author interview March 2002.
66 Author Interview March 2002.
67 Author interview 27 August 2003.
68 Author interview 27 August 2003.
69 Author interview 27 August 2003.
70 Author interview 22 September 2004.
71 Author interview 26 July 2009.
72 Author interview March 2001.
73 Author interview March 2002.
74 The cast and crew lists printed in Annex are taken directly from the beginning and end credits of the TV show and some inconsistencies were noted regarding spelling of surnames. I have attempted to rationalise this to provide a uniform approach throughout.
75 The interviews used for this piece come from the author’s interviews with Rankin on 14 January 2002, 22 September 2004, 11 August 2005, 19 and 20 August 2009.
PLATES
Ian Rankin, August 2009.
© Rex Features
Craig Cabell and Ian Rankin in conversation at the 2010 London Book Fair.
© Nathan Cabell
These wooden dolls, found at Arthur’s Seat in the 19th Century, provided inspiration for Rankin’s novel The Falls, one of the very best Rebus titles.
17 Heriot Row, the former Edinburgh home of Robert Louis Stevenson.
Ian Rankin, around the time he wrote The Black Book.
© Miranda Harvey
The first edition of the first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses.
The first proof copy of Hide and Seek, the second Rebus novel.
Publicity material and an advance copy of Fleshmarket Close.
A view of Edinburgh (above) taken from the Castle (below).
© photolibrary.com/Nathan Cabell
The Oxford Bar Inspector Rebus’ favourite pub.
Mary King’s Close, the setting of the seven pack murder in Mortal Causes.
Welcome to Fleshmarket Close!
lan Rankin in Fleshmarket Close in Edinburgh during National Braille Week, January 2009, launching an appeal to help re-house the Edinburgh-based Scottish Braille Press.
© Andrew Milligan/PA Wire
Ranking comes face to face with one of his youngest fans.
Promoting Exit Music, billed as the concluding book in the Inspector Rebus series.
© Rex Features
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First published in hardback in 2010
This edition 2011
ISBN: 978 1 84358 292 2
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