Ian Rankin has told how he regrets not buying a pub after being unable to go to his favourite boozer.
The Rebus author has been gasping to get back to his local after two months of lockdown.
He even stood outside The Oxford Bar in Edinburgh with a can of lager and a glass to celebrate turning 60.
Now, the Covid-19 outbreak has left him regretting not acquiring his own drinking den in the capital.
Rankin said: “I could murder a pint right now. I can’t believe that I still haven’t bought my own pub and, of course, am now really regretting not having done so. I’m missing it.”
Speaking on Lockdown Litfest’s Paul Blezard’s podcast, he added: “Am I being serious? It would be a damn good idea, especially at a time like this.”
Rankin said he first walked into The Oxford Bar while writing his debut Inspector Rebus novel Knots and Crosses. The pub is also the fictional detective’s favourite watering hole.
He said: “I was introduced to The Oxford by a student friend of mine. He was a part-time barman and I was just at the start of writing the first Rebus novel.
“I looked at it and thought, ‘This is where my guy would drink.’ It’s no bells, no whistles, central Edinburgh, hidden away, there’s no music, no jukebox, the TV is hardly ever on.
"It was all about conversation, a nice safe place to have a chat, wind down, and escape from the
real world.
“So that’s where Rebus drinks and I have been drinking there since about 1984 or 85, I guess.
"I had my stag party in there in July 86 before I got married.
“I had my last drink in there the day before the lockdown.
"I happened to walk past and thought, ‘I’ll just see how they’re doing’.
"And the place was pretty empty then – the word was getting round that we all should be getting careful.”
Rankin, who lives in the city centre, is such a regular that fan mail is delivered to the pub just marked “The Oxford Bar, Edinburgh”.
