Ian Rankin

This may seem a surprising question. Crime is still the most popular genre in our bookshops and libraries by far, and each week seems to bring a new TV detective to our screens. But keeping an eye on the bestseller lists, I have noticed that the police officer is not as ubiquitous as he or she once was.

Ian Rankin has revealed he chose to use a fictional Highland village for his new novel after he was criticised by residents previously for using a real one. The crime writer has told how he invented a location for latest Inspector Rebus book, A Song For The Dark Times, after he caused upset for featuring Rosemarkie, a village on the Highland peninsula Black Isle, in a previous novel.

A Kazuo Ishiguro novel is never about what it pretends to be about, and Never Let Me Go is true to form. Its narrator, Kathy H, is examining her school days at a superficially idyllic establishment called Hailsham, which raises children cloned to provide organs to “normal” people. They don’t have parents, they can’t have children. Once grown, they’ll serve as “carers” to those already being harvested; then they’ll be harvested themselves.

Kit Rankin just loves being around people, says his father, Ian. “He loves hugs and if you go near him you’re getting a hug whether you want it or not. “He’s better known around the streets of Edinburgh than I am,” adds the crime novelist with a wry laugh. “People stop me and say ‘Oh, you’re Kit’s dad’, because when he’s taken out to do the shopping everybody notices him because he’s blond and he’s laughing.”

The crime writer Ian Rankin has criticised the “woeful” lack of information on the Covid vaccine rollout for people with learning disabilities after revealing his son is still awaiting his jab. Rankin, whose 26-year-old son, Kit, has Angelman syndrome and lives in a care facility close to the family home...

Best-selling crime writer Ian Rankin has described the “tough” situation of being unable to touch or hug his disabled son for almost a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rankin said his son Kit, who has the genetic condition Angelman syndrome, does not understand the circumstances but is well looked...

This room is where I relax when I'm writing my books, by playing a record. I have very few pictures of my parents and that's why this photo of my mum Isobel, who died in 1979 when I was 19, and my dad James, who died in 1990, is so important to me.