The 10 places that inspire Rebus author Ian Rankin – and his famous character

IAN RANKIN is the UK’s best-selling crime author.

Fife-born Ian is the man behind the Inspector Rebus novels which have won fans all over the world.

He took a year off but the lure of writing about the hard-drinking detective was irresistible.

The result is the much-anticipated 20th Rebus novel, Even Dogs In The Wild (Orion £19.99 hardback, £10.99 eBook). It’s out on Thursday.

Ian, who lives in Edinburgh, says that the places Rebus visits in his books and his own haunts are often the same.

Here, he tells us the 10 places in Scotland closest to his heart and those loved by his famous copper…ST ANDREWSWhen I was a kid, we went to Kinkell Braes caravan site every summer. There was my mum, dad, sister and myself shoehorned into a tiny caravan rented from somebody my dad knew.

We’d play card games if it rained and my parents tell a story about me ripping all the labels off tins so my mum didn’t know if she was opening a tin of stew or rice pudding for tea. East Sands was the nearest beach.

I just thought it’d be the kind of holidays Rebus would have had. He grew up in the same town as me, Cardenden, and went to the same high school. But he left at 15 to join the army whereas I went to uni. When I take him to St Andrews, it’s usually during term-time.

St Andrews EDINBURGH (1)It’s hard to have a tour of Scotland without Rebus stopping off at the Oxford Bar on Young Street. It’s a real bar I discovered when I was a student and I was just starting to write the first Rebus novel.

I’d never heard of it I used to drink in the usual city centre student bars when a friend who was working as a barman invited me.

I thought right away it’d be the sort of place Rebus would drink. There are no bells and whistles, no jukebox, no food, it’s all about the beer and conversation.

It’s central but a bit hard to find and that’s the kind of Edinburgh I wanted to write about. GLASGOWI’ve chosen the People’s Palace on Glasgow Green as it resonated with me and also Rebus.

It’s the story of working-class life the steamie, Barrowland Ballroom and Billy Connolly’s banana boots and that’s the upbringing I had and Rebus would have had.

Cardenden and Glasgow are obviously very different places but there would have been the same spirit among the people. In one of the first novels he goes to Glasgow to give evidence and kills time at Paddy’s Market. THE BLACK ISLEWe bought a holiday home in Cromarty a few years back, partly to work free from distractions but also to go to in the summer. I got to know the road really well and the lovely wee coastal villages and pubs.

Every time I go I like it better and decided to take Rebus there for Standing In Another

Man’s Grave. Of course, he’s there because of a murder so his is a very different take on the Black Isle.

I purposely didn’t take him as far as Cromarty in case I upset the locals, so he finds his answers in Rosemarkie. But then I did a talk and somebody said they were from there and asked why I’d made Rosemarkie the place of murders!

Cromarty SHETLANDBlack and Blue involves the oil industry so Rebus ends up going to Sullom Voe and also a wee island, the Broch of Mousa, which has an Iron Age roundhouse. I did it from a guidebook without actually going.

Then I did an event in Shetland and this guy came up and asked how I got there without him as he was the boatman who took people over.

I felt honoured he was so taken in by the description he thought I’d been there.

So after that I did go and was fascinated by the civilisation and the stuff they were building away back in the Iron Age. It’s a real culture shock for Rebus after Edinburgh, of course. EDINBURGH (2)I’ve used Holyrood Park a lot in the books. One of the police stations Rebus worked at is right on the edge and he had views of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags.

In the last book he took a murder suspect up there for a quiet word. Having Arthur’s Seat, an extinct volcano, in the middle of the city is extraordinary and I love taking visitors there.

I didn’t come to Edinburgh a lot as a kid because my parents didn’t drive but I was here for seven years as a student.

The first time I climbed Arthur’s Seat was with a pal. We bought a couple of bottles of wine, scrambled up the sheerest face and sat at the top slugging them before stumbling back down! KYLE OF TONGUERebus has a daughter called Samantha. She hasn’t played a big role but a couple of books ago I decided she was living up in Tongue, married to a guy working on dismantling Dounreay.

I thought I’d better drive up there and see what it was like. You go through up the A836 and back down the A838 or the other way round.

Altnaharra has the amazing lunar landscape and in Durness I learned John Lennon used to go there on his holidays. It’s my favourite drive in all of Scotland. NEWTONGRANGEThe National Mining Museum is on the site of the old Lady Victoria colliery and they’ve done a brilliant job of it. Rebus comes from mining stock as do I. My dad wasn’t a coal miner but his four brothers were and I had lots of cousins who were involved.

By the time I was born in the early ’60s, mining was becoming difficult but I remember the klaxon going and seeing the miners trudging home, still black from being down the pit.

So when I go there and especially when Rebus goes there, it’ll bring back a lot of memories.

Burns Cottage BURNS COTTAGEIf you’re a writer, of course you revere Burns and the extraordinary story of this self-made man who was published and successful despite everything.

Rebus would have grown up with him, like I did when I was at primary school. You got certificates if you could recite one of his poems, sing one of his songs and pass a general knowledge quiz on him. I’ve got all three certificates.

Burns Clubs were very active in Fife and Rebus would have loved Burns. It’s in his soul, I’d have thought, and that’s something that links the two of us. They’ve done a nice job of the cottage and it’s a lovely place to go for the day. CULLODEN BATTLEFIELDWhen I was a kid my parents took me to Culloden. It was the late ’60s or early ’70s and there was just a bleak moor and a wee cottage.

But I went back just after the new visitor centre opened a few years ago and was blown away by the difference. It’s so cleverly laid out. Rebus hasn’t been but I’d love to get him up there.

Maybe one time when he’s up seeing his daughter the two could have a day at Culloden.

Of course she has a kid now I’m giving it away, it’s in the new book. He’s a granddad and goes to see his granddaughter for the first time.

It’ll be the first time readers will have seen her and there may be room in a future book for Rebus, Samantha and his granddaughter to visit Culloden.Sanjeev Kohli reveals the 10 comedy classics that inspired him – click here to read more