That's it for today!
ID2370904 asks:
What is you’re writing process like when you finally sit down to pen a new novel? Do you plan and outline the plot or do you find a good opening scenario and then let the story find its own path?
Guardian contributor I make it up as I go! I have a vague plan, but usually the book has a different idea of where it wants to go, and I end up just hanging on for dear life. There's usually a murder or a crime v early on, and that gets everything started...
StSpice asks:
Without giving too much away, Even Dogs in the Wild seems to tie up some connections between Rebus and Big Ger and brings a natural conclusion to an ongoing situation for Malcolm Fox. I take it there will be another Rebus book?
Guardian contributor I hope so. There'll be another book in 2016 and something tells me I still have unfinished business with some of these characters, so...
ID1540301 asks:
I read The Watchman for my dissertation which deals with representations of terrorism in British fiction. It forms part of my chapter dealing with fiction tackling the Troubles. Your novel takes a different approach to the IRA than most of the other works I read. Unlike other thrillers, it does not demonise the struggle for Irish independence and the Irish themselves straight away, and takes a much more ambivalent approach in contrast to a mainstream attitude relying on Manichean views of “good” and “bad”.
I was wondering what the ideas of Irishness the text is meant to convey? And ae these ideas different to the mass of Troubles fiction because you are Scottish like the novel’s protagonist Miles?
Guardian contributor Interesting. My wife grew up in Belfast through the Troubles, and her family still lives there. I started visiting NI in 1981 and too, with me all the baggage of a working class Scottish Protestant upbringing. Maybe my frequent trips gave me glimpses of a more nuanced debate that could be had. Not sure, but I do appreciate your comment.
ID138140 asks:
Thank goodness “Dogs” is back on track. The last two read like telly scripts, hey he can’t be perfect all the time you know.
Guardian contributor
nspoon asks:
Do you find yourself curtailing your natural voice when writing the Fox character as opposed to the Rebus character (particularly the humour)?
Guardian contributor Neither character is my natural voice. I'm writing this with my natural voice. I'm neither Rebus nor Fox, but find I can inhabit either man's head when the need arises.
GermanJock asks:
I’ve read all your books and love them but was wondering what your best selling book is?
Guardian contributor Good question. A few years back my publisher worked out that my best selling paperback in UK was actually a standalone, Doors Open. Maybe the thought of a 20-volume series has been putting a few readers off!
palfreyman asks:
I note that you express, in your introductions or afterwords, thoughts that are almost, but not quite, political. Instead you tend to turn them into sociological observations. If it’s not too impertinent, may I ask about your politics?
Guardian contributor
James Bridgman asks:
Saw you in Manchester the other week – really great night. Question I wished I’d asked: over your Rebus novels, there’s a lot of peripheral characters (both cops and bad guys) that have come and gone. A personal favourite of mine was the Weasel. Are there any that you particularly favoured? And do you find it easy to ‘let go of them’?
Just finished Even Dogs... Another cracker – hope this November brings some good ideas and less worry!
Guardian contributor I loved Peacock Johnson. Try googling him - he went on to have a life outside of A Question of Blood!
samjordison asks:
I remember getting excited a few years ago when reading that you’d got hold of the Rebus TV rights again – thinking that instead of a 45 minute programme, you’d prefer someone spread a book over a series, Killing style. Has anything happened since then?
(On that note, do you have any favourite TV crime series?)
Guardian contributor Answered this elsewhere but as to TV shows - I binge watch The West Wing with my wife. And I love Spiral. Gilou kind of is Rebus...
Jericho999 asks:
I’ve just been enjoying Black And Blue ... In your intro, you mentioned that the Dancing Pigs were a real band you were once in – and I wondered if you’d heard anything from the other members of the band about being featured in such a famous novel (and indeed, being so famous in it)?
Guardian contributor Dancing Pigs existed for about a year, 1979-80. Our keyboard player David Young died a little while back. He had Motor Neurone Disease. We had a few get-togethers towards the end. The guitarist got in touch a wee while back and sent me a CD of our 2 forays into a recording studio. They reminded me that the band was fine, but the vocalist had no idea what he was doing...
Al Cumming asks:
Hi, would you ever consider genre-jumping like your friend Iain (M) Banks, or are you a detective-fiction writer to the core?
Guardian contributor Maybe one day, why not? I did a Hellblazer graphic novel and the libretto to a v short opera. If a great idea comes and it ain't crime, I'll go with it.
mikebhoy asks:
Do you ever regret naming The Oxford as Rebus’ local as you probably get pestered every time you’re in....
Guardian contributor I seldom get pestered. Rebus fans are not natural pesterers. I feel a bit sorry for them actually, as I'm a very pale shadow of the man they're actually seeking....
friedaechorlton asks:
Hello Iain Love your Rebus books. Are the latest books going to be made into films and will ken Stott take the lead?
Guardian contributor No immediate plans for more films. I gow the rights back and would like to see more expansive use of the stories, settings and characters to allow all three to breathe. Four hours maybe, rather than 45 minutes per book. Maybe one day a TV company will take the opportunity...
ninemileshigh asks:
The question of independence has been the largest political debate in Scotland for a generation. The previous referendum was mentioned in one of the early books as a point of contention between Rebus and his ex. Where would Rebus stand regarding the contemporary referendum?
Guardian contributor He hates change of any kind, so would probably vote No, unlike Siobhan Clarke...
daveydor asks:
Music is part of the grain of the Rebus books – amongst many others, I remember a reference to John Martyn’s Solid Air as something for his funeral – any chance of putting together a “Rebus Recommends” album? I know it would need record company & artist approval, but I expect you’d get it!
PS Yes, I have Kickback City!
Guardian contributor This has been discussed but would be costly to get the various licences. I think there's a Rebus playlist on Spotify, possibly linked from my web site.
GrumpyYoungLad asks:
Do you have any plans to write a book with Siobhan Clarke as the main character when Rebus eventually retires?
Also, will Rebus ever make a visit to the Cambridge Bar if the Oxford is too full one day?
Guardian contributor Doubt Rebus would visit a rival pub!
I've often thought about writing a Siobhan Clarke book but have never found a story that felt like hers. That may change of course.
Milly1948 asks:
Hi, what do you do to relax in between writing?
Guardian contributor Pubs, crosswords, record shopping. I like heading north to the Black Isle and hanging out there, with no TV and no mobile phone signal.
'I never have any long term plans. I don't even know what my next book will be about'
apprize1 asks:
Will there be more Malcolm Fox novels?
Guardian contributor I really don't know. I never have any long term plans. Don't even know what my next book will be about, just that I need to start it in January...
'I saw heroin as part of Edinburgh's Mr Hyde, so felt obliged to mention it'
samjordison asks:
Since Irvine Welsh got a mention below ... Do you think Rebus could take on Begbie?
(More seriously, there are quite a few references to heroin in Edinbugh in the earlier Rebus novels ... which is just one of the things that ties them in closely to a specific point in Scottish history ... I’m wondering if you have a sense now of the way the different books chart so many points in history ... And if it’s something you’re particularly aware of when you’re writing ... Or more something that seeps in...)
Guardian contributor Heroin was definitely a problem in Edinburgh when both Irvine and I started writing. I saw it as part of the city's Mr Hyde, so felt obliged to mention it. Problem with writing about a real city in real time is that I feel I must mention stuff that's actually happening - such as the years of tta, works. But this can also be helpful, as when the G8 came to town - easiest research I ever did. I just had to walk outside...
AlpineJoe asks:
Being a crime writer, does that influence what you read yourself? I mean, are you endlessly reading other folk’s crime books or do you delve in to something altogether different?
Guardian contributor I read a lot of crime but also other sorts of fiction, and a lot of non-fiction - I'm a sucker for a music biography.
MythicalMagpie asks:
I’d firstly like to say how much I’m enjoying reading about Rebus’s exploits. Having jumped straight from Knots and Crosses to Even Dogs In The Wild, I can really see how the character has developed along with the sophistication of the writing. I did enjoy Knots and Crosses, though. I was an eighties Edinburgh University student myself, so it did bring back some memories. Well, with more, or should that be fewer, murders perhaps.
I’d like to ask Ian Rankin if Rebus was one of the things that drew him back to living in Edinburgh. The man and the city are inseparable, so I was wondering if Rebus can only be written about by an author who is himself immersed in the evolving reek of the city.
As I, somewhat tongue in cheek, suggested we might have to do some Austen as an antidote for all the cops, strangulations, booze and fags, I was also wondering if Ian Rankin sees his novels as being written more for male than female readers. Or are they gender neutral and I’m the one whose thinking is horribly out of step.
Guardian contributor My fans seem to be about 50/50 male/female. Not sure if that's generally true in crime fiction or not. Austen? No, but I'll happily immerse myself in Muriel Spark. As a student in Edinburgh in the 1980s I started writing about the city in an attempt to make sense of it - that is an ongoing project, it seems!
Updated
'I'm a sucker for books which feature music!'
proust asks:
Your best book in my view is Black and Blue, love the way it draws on on the famous Bible John case, which had had a lasting impact on west of Scotland culture. Have you read Andrew OHagan’ The Missing, which also looks at this fascinating and still unsolved case?
Guardian contributor I think I namecheck The Missing at the end of Black and Blue. If not, I should, because it was definitely an influence.
And further:
Love the Rebus books. What do you think of French “noir” fiction, like the novels of Manchette? Also, would you agree that Simenon’s “Romans durs” (ie the non-Maigret, not that there’s anything wrong with them!) deserve a wider readership?
Guardian contributor I do like French noir. Found a writer recently called Pascal Garnier whose books remind me of those Romans Dur. Also have a soft spot for, um, forgetting his name now but wrote each book about a different Paris arrondissement. It'll come back to me. Been a while...
And Dylanwolf adds:
I hope you’ll allow me to piggyback your question a little, Proust. I’d like to slip in Pascal Garnier as an example of French “noir”.
And to ask Ian, as he clearly incorporating music into his novels – by the way Ian many thanks for the head’s up on The Night Tripper in The Falls – whether he has read Suhal Saadi’s 2004 novel Pyschoraag and if so, did he enjoy DJ Zaf’s all night playlist for his swansong on Glasgow’s Radio Chandni?
Guardian contributor Oh yes, read that book when it first came out - I'm a sucker for books which feature music!
Updated
daveportivo asks:
Hi, I have a few questions – apologies in advance if you’ve had to answer these questions a hundred and one times, I’m completely new to both Rebus and your own writing, but have enjoyed The Falls, Exit Music, Set In Darkness and Knots & Crosses.
1) One thing that struct me particularly in The Falls and K&C is the dichotomy between the tedium of police work (checking records, dead ends, office politics, manning phone lines, frustrated pints) and these big theatrical show downs at the end of the novels. So I wanted to know what draws you towards these big grandiose crescendos? I notice that Exit Music’s ending almost flips this style of conclusion on its head.
2) Because each of novels I read seemed so tied to developments within Edinburgh and spoke very specifically to certain times and places in the city’s history, I wanted to ask the chicken and the egg question...
...When you were coming up with these stories what comes first: a social or political observation/setting, a cool concept for a crime or some new idea you have for developing Rebus and his cohorts? I guess I’m also asking how central is/was Rebus to your writing, is he at the heart of each new concept or is it a case of working him into each fresh idea.
3) So many of the observations about Edinburgh come from the characters themselves, so you can never quite tell what author himself thinks, so I thought I’d just ask: do you think Edinburgh is in a better place today than when you started writing, or is there a certain era/time/look you remember with a nostalgic fondness?
Guardian contributor Police work can be the very definition of tedium IRL. Fiction has to be slightly more entertaining, hence the excitement of the denouement. I'm excited as a writer when the ending approaches - I want to find out how it's all going to work out!
I get the theme first - maybe a question about the world that I want to investigate. Then I find a crime that will allow me to go there. Then I ask which kind of character would best act as my guide.
Edinburgh is like a lot of cities - cleaner, safer etc than it used to be but with a little bit of that character missing as the multinationals and super pubs move in.
MYCohen asks:
Sorry for the massively obvious question, but: which Fall album is Inspector John Rebus’s (or Inspector John Rebus’?!) favourite? And does he still go to the gigs, if he ever did?
Guardian contributor You know, I doubt he'd listen to The Fall. I bought Live From The Witch Trials when it came out and that remains a favourite.
zendik asks:
What’s next?
Guardian contributor More touring for the new book. Christmas break. Another book promised to my publisher by June. So...action stations early January!
Trevor Edward Walder asks:
Does Ian mind his name and some parts of his character being used in a work (or works I can’t stop writing) of fiction by me?
Guardian contributor I'll let my legal team answer that. ;-) Alexander McCall Smith occasionally name checks me in his books. I'm going to get him back one of these days...
Kungfulil asks:
What was the inspiration behind Trainspotting and is it true he used to love poems to Justin Currie from Del e, Del oh, Delamaemite or whatever they’re called? Thanks. Love your work.
Guardian contributor
palfreyman asks:
Started reading your work this month, thanks to the Reading Group and have finished four-and-a-half so far: am nearly finished with The Black Book and will end my Rebus marathon with Mortal Causes.
Here’s my question for you (or set of questions - dunno which yet):
I noticed three things you do in terms of your prose, which are quite consistent throughout the books (although more subtle in the later ones):
1. Puns - a lot of the characters seem to be addicted to them;
2. Other sorts of wordplay - Rebus constantly linking the music being played to his mood, for instance;
3. Inversions - from Strip Jack, for instance, I recall in particular Rebus deliberately wiping his shoes on the Welcome mat on his way out of a shop.
And as I have mentioned in one of our previous discussions, all these three, along with some other ideas (Edinburgh is built on top of older Edinburgh - Knots & Crosses?), all remind me very strongly of Terry Pratchett.
So can I ask what, if any, connection there is or was between the two of you? Or is it just that your minds seem to work in much the same way?
Guardian contributor No connection with Sir Terry! Puns and jokes in early books but fewer as series progresses because I soon learned from my various translators that they are v hard to translate! Hadn't noticed inversions - I'll be looking for them from now on!
Dylanwolf asks:
Hello Ian, thank you both for answering our questions today and for the crime novels that we have enjoyed reading this month in the Guardian Reading Group.
I’d like to ask you a question about playwriting. In writing Dark Skies, alongside Mark Thomson, what challenges, some perhaps surprising, did you encounter in developing a work for the stage compared with constructing a novel? Were you pleased with the final production (I alas didn’t get to see it)? What did you learn in the process and was there anything that you now wish you’d done differently? And are you considering writing more for the stage in the future?
Oh, and what advice would you give to a young person determined to carve out a career in herding swine?
Many blessing to you, your family and friends.
Guardian contributor Dark Road. Yes, that was a challenge. Luckily I wrote it alongside a proper playwright and director. Lazy answer this, but the published book contains essays, production diaries etc which will answer you more fully than I can here. My swine herd tip - don't do what I did. I got my pigs drunk and one of them died. End of my swineherd career...
Updated
'I had a choice – invent a new character or bring Rebus back. No contest'
MeAlanPartridge asks:
You said that Exit Music would be the last Rebus novel – and you began the Malcolm Fox series (which I really enjoyed) – but then you brought Rebus back. Why?
Guardian contributor I really did think I was done with Rebus but then I got the idea for a book featuring the Cold Case team in Edinburgh. It was staffed by retired cops, so I had a choice - invent a new character or bring Rebus back. No contest.
Updated
lysistrata papas says:
First I fell for Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde,
then I met Mr.Nice Scottish Guy.
He came to Greece
and changed his religion for me.
I left Him one night.
What I keep from Him
is IAN RANKIN.
Ian is a regular to our pub. He prefers Mythos, right Ian?!
http://www.demotix.com/news/6365456/ian-rankin-presents-his-latest-rebus-novel-greek-audiences
I have a message for the bas***d who made me cry in the Saints of the Shadow Bible:
John,
and a question for his father: Do you believe that we live ...
... or the opposite?!
Guardian contributor Um, thanks. Can't open those links but will keep trying. I'm sure there are other fine beers in Greece but I seem to like Mythos - maybe for its name!
Michael-Angelo Keramidas asks:
Do you read when you write? If yes, is your writing influenced by what you are reading at the time?
Guardian contributor I read books all the time; doesn't often influence my own work. Though Martin Amis's John Self was in my mind when I created one of the main characters in my non-Rebus novel Bleeding Hearts.
walkerk asks:
I started reading the Rebus novels before I watched the series, but since watching Kevin Stott play Rebus, I always picture him in my mind when I’m reading the more recent novels. I was wondering to what extent is Stott’s portrayal of Rebus on your mind, if at all, while you are writing?
Guardian contributor I've never watched the TV shows because I didn't want actors' interpretations skewing my own fixed ideas of my central characters. But I'm told Ken Stott did a fine job.
RabBurnout asks:
Hi Ian – just finishing the third novel you wrote, Tooth and Nail, having bought the first three together in a collection, for the Reading Group discussion of Knots and Crosses. Enjoyed that one so much, I just carried on, although I’m not usually a reader of crime fiction.
I’m fascinated by the constant references to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in your early novels, and in the constant anguished debate Rebus has within himself regarding his own darker impulses, which he tries to expiate by catching those who actually commit really dark acts, perhaps.
I was wondering, in the light of a recent remark on R4 to the effect that crime novelists put all their darker impulses into their work, how much of yourself you put into the character of Rebus? You certainly bring him alive for the reader, anyway.
Also, do you see Rebus as embodying what Hugh McDiarmid, in his discussion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by Hogg, called the Caledonian Antisyzygy ?-the conflict between repression and inhibition in Scottish culture.
Guardian contributor Ah yes, the Caledonian antisyzygy - much discussed when I was a student! I focussed on Jekyll and Hyde because Edinburgh seemed that kind of city. And all crime writers become crime writers because they are fascinated by evil. There's a dark core to much Scottish Literature. We embrace the gothic.
palfreyman asks:
Sorry for putting in yet another question...
From what you write in your introductions it seems to me that you are not really religious, or are even an atheist.
Yet you gave Rebus a faith.
May I ask why? And also, is it difficult to write about a person of faith if you are not one yourself?
Guardian contributor I went through the same stages as Rebus in those early books - looking to religion for the answers to big questions. Like him, I failed to find them.
Sidfishes asks:
I’m a big Rebus fan and have read most of the series. Thanks for the entertainment!
One of the things I’ve particularly enjoyed is that Rebus’s career charts and reflects the changing attitudes in society in general and specifically within the police towards minorities, women and identity politics.
If you were starting the Rebus novels now, do you think it would be possible to create a maverick character like Rebus and have the same relevance?
Guardian contributor Possibly not insofar as a police career these days precludes mavericks. Heck, Rebus didn't even go to college. Almost unthinkable these days. To discuss the themes I want to discuss maybe I'd have to make my main character a journalist instead.
On why Rebus is called Rebus
martinjlee asks:
Hi there, thanks for the books. Simple question. How did you come up with the name Rebus? So unscottish.
Guardian contributor It means picture puzzle and in first book he's being sent picture puzzles. Later I met a guy called Rebus in Edinburgh who told me it's a Polish surname. So Rebus has Polish roots, I guess.
Updated
MGFMSKM asks:
Hi Ian, I didn’t think I’d have time to read the books for this month’s book group, but I’m very glad that I did!
I read your article a while back about your love for Thomas Pynchon – he’s my favourite author, and it’s always nice to hear of other fans. If you could choose a book of yours to send to Pynchon (or perhaps this is even something you’ve already done!), which would you choose?
Guardian contributor Hmm. His Lot 49 is a mystery novel, and Inherent Vice plays with the form. Maybe I'd send him an early Rebus. There's a character called Big Podeen whose name is a play on Pynchon's Pig Bodine. My small homage.
'Having a disabled child ... has steeled me against overweening bureaucracy'
Clariana asks:
Hello Iain, you have a disabled daughter – how has that influenced you political views? Would you have anything to say to current government about the treatment of the disabled?
[Yes, I am absolutely tactless...]
Guardian contributor Not sure having a disabled child has influenced my political views but it has steeled me against overweening bureaucracy. Last thing you need as a parent is a fresh set of hoops waiting every few years.
Updated
Ian Rankin is with us now!
His first answer was to the following question by jasonaparkes:
The new book is named after a very fine song by Associates/The Associates. Is that your favourite song by the late Billy Mackenzie and Alan Rankine or did it fit the novel?
Do you have any other favourite Scottish acts?
Guardian contributor Spoiler alert - don't look at the song lyrics till you've read the book! I just felt those lyrics resonated with the theme/plot of the book. Other Scottish acts I love - Alex Harvey, Skids, Mogwai, Jackie Leven, etc etc etc.
Ian Rankin, master of Edinburgh noir, will be online to answer your questions on Monday 23 November at 1pm
This, I hardly need say, is a fantastic opportunity. Ian Rankin is a literary star. He’s won so many honours and Dagger awards that I can’t hope to list them here (you’ll have to go to Wikipedia) and his 30-plus novels and short-story collections are hugely important.
It’s been said that he accounts for 10% of all crime fiction sales in the UK, and his creation Inspector Rebus could probably make a serious claim to being the most popular British detective since Miss Marple. But Rebus hasn’t just earned sales and money – he’s also earned respect. Rankin writes serious, intriguing, clever novels that provide fine insights into contemporary Scotland, the British class system, the seamy Edinburgh underworld and the even more frightening over-world of business, power and corruption. He’s also very good on pubs, drink and rock’n’roll.
If you want to a refresher, we’ve been discussing his work over the last few weeks on the reading group.
So there’s no shortage of subjects for questions. Ian Rankin will be here from 1pm to 2pm GMT on Monday 23 November – but do feel free to post your questions now.
That's the hour up! I've got Heinz Tomato Soup waiting for me in the kitchen. Thanks for all your questions. I've been Ian Rankin. Goodnight...