Book review – Rebus’s Scotland

I do enjoy Ian Rankin’s Rebus stories. However this book is not one of these but rather a combined biography, travelog, explanations and lots of large photos in a coffee table sized book. 

In a useful introduction Rankin explains: ‘This is partly my biography, part biography of Rebus and partly a book about modern day Scotland, where it’s going and where it’s come from’. In this book he takes readers for a close look at the world Rebus inhabits which is also also the place he, Rankin, comes from – Edinburgh, Glasgow and the surrounding rural Scotland of his childhood.

As the narrative travels around the author points to the setting of this or that book, why it was set particularly there and often of passed memories which have been incorporated into the story line. 

Also explained is the genesis of regular appearing characters such as Big Ger Cafferty and Siobhan Clarke and how in-jokes and police nicknames came about. 

Rankin clearly loves his ‘patch’ and enjoys being the travel guide showing it off. Nevertheless he is less than happy with some of the political shenanigans, and the complex machine of present-day Scotland, which he also explains – warts and all. These are regularly incorporated into his storylines. A good example being the major changes to the Scottish policing system.

The book is lavishly illustrated by photographs from around the area taken by Ross Gillespie and Tricia Mallet, his long standing providers of book cover photographs. These are not your usual colourful coffee table landscapes but rather artistic photographs in black and white, mostly of buildings sometimes taken from unexpected angles. 

One of particular interest is of Rebus’s favourite pub, the Oxford, it is surprisingly tiny, only a couple of small rooms in a corner building.  Photos such as this underline how while Rebus stories are fiction the settings are very real.

Here is a book which will sure to be of interest to anybody who enjoys Ian Rankin’s writing.