0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11'Where do writers get their ideas?
0:00:12 > 0:00:16'This one gets his from a green manilla folder every December.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20'Ian Rankin writes one book a year.'
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Basically, this pile of what looks like scrap paper,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28potentially, is my next book.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30The story's in here somewhere.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33I'm just looking for it to reveal itself.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38Throughout the year, I've just got some ideas.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42I've just scribbled them down on any pieces of paper I can.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Clippings from newspapers.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49This is a napkin from a hotel. I've scribbled a couple of ideas on it.
0:00:50 > 0:00:55I just flick through and see if anything jumps out at me.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58"The Church and the NHS working together on exorcism."
0:00:58 > 0:01:01"A deaf kid lip-reads something they shouldn't."
0:01:01 > 0:01:04A doctor who claimed to have helped save lives on 7/7,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07who turned out not to be a doctor at all.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11I have my doubts that I can use that. Maybe a short story.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13An idea here for a stand-alone...
0:01:13 > 0:01:18'Ian Rankin has had at least one good idea a year for 25 years.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25'His best-known character is the hard-bitten Edinburgh cop
0:01:25 > 0:01:27'John Rebus.
0:01:27 > 0:01:32'A leathery maverick who refuses to play by the rules.'
0:01:32 > 0:01:36I'm going to have to arrest you for impersonating a human being.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39I'm going to ask you once more nicely, OK?
0:01:39 > 0:01:40Fuck off!
0:01:42 > 0:01:46'17 Rebus books and a popular TV series
0:01:46 > 0:01:50'have made Ian Rankin a household name and a millionaire.'
0:01:50 > 0:01:52YOU BASTARD!
0:01:54 > 0:01:58'Unfortunately, having written the books in real time,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01'Rankin was forced to retire Rebus five years ago,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04'when the detective hit 60.
0:02:05 > 0:02:11'Exit Music saw the brooding anti-hero riding off into the sunset.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14'Which leaves Ian Rankin with a bit of a problem.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17'What's he going to write about next?'
0:02:17 > 0:02:22What's this? A guy going up and down the A9, seeking missing daughter.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26"How can a young woman vanish without leaving a single clue?"
0:02:26 > 0:02:31Anything to do with cold cases, the reopening of unsolved murders.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Some of these clippings go back 2009 and I haven't found a use for them.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Doesn't mean to say that I won't.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Nothing is ever wasted.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43If I'm lucky, I get one good idea a year.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47If you're a novelist, one good idea a year is all you need.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19'It's the last Saturday before Christmas
0:03:19 > 0:03:23'and 200 Rankin fans have queued for an hour to meet him.'
0:03:23 > 0:03:27- Hello. Who's Gordon?- It's my dad.
0:03:27 > 0:03:29Hope this isn't all he's getting for Christmas.
0:03:29 > 0:03:31- Thank you.- Take care.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34'The small matter of writing a new book will have to wait.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37'He's busy promoting the last one.'
0:03:37 > 0:03:39Ian Rankin's huge.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42For book sales, he's one of the world top 20 authors
0:03:42 > 0:03:44that keeps the book trade going.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48And keeps us going as a company. He's that important.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51Is there a queue still at the door? Oh, Christ!
0:03:51 > 0:03:55I think he's got that fan base that you associate with huge writers.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58You're going to get huge crowds come to see him.
0:03:58 > 0:04:03People are that passionate about his characters and his books.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05'Rankin's latest book, The Impossible Dead,
0:04:05 > 0:04:11'features his more recent creation, Inspector Malcolm Fox from Internal Affairs.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15'Fox couldn't be more different from Rebus.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'Teetotal, whiter than white, he lives and works by the rules.'
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Thank you. Bye.
0:04:21 > 0:04:26'I do think Malcolm is much more like me as a human being.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30'Rebus is much more of a maverick, more of a rule-breaker,
0:04:30 > 0:04:35'very negative in his outlook on human nature - none of that pertains to Malcolm.'
0:04:35 > 0:04:39'He's a bit of a square, but people seem to be warming to Malcolm Fox.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44'In fact, the size of this crowd would suggest he has a very bright future ahead of him.'
0:04:44 > 0:04:47Thanks for coming along. Hello.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49Thanks for coming along. See ya.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51Hello. All right. See ya.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53Hiya. All right? See ya.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56- Hi there. - Hey, how you doing?- OK.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02This is my last event of the year, so I can relax now.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05And get started on the next book.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09I've no idea if you're stable or not.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17'Ian has agreed to keep a video diary over the next six months,
0:05:17 > 0:05:19'as he writes his new book.'
0:05:19 > 0:05:24It's, er... January 2nd, 2012.
0:05:25 > 0:05:32On this day in 2011, I actually started writing The Impossible Dead,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34my latest novel.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38History has not repeated itself,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43but I've spent today typing up all my notes for the new book.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48So, if I'm in the mood, any day now, I'm going to get started writing.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50Hurrah.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58It's Sunday 8th January,
0:05:58 > 0:06:04and I intend to start writing the new novel tomorrow.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08I haven't done much the last few days.
0:06:08 > 0:06:13Except get a haircut. I've got 12 pages of notes.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18So, filming tomorrow - day one of the writing process.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33I'm thinking of just about anything but sitting down and writing that book.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36At the back of my head, it's ticking over.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40I'm a bit lazy and I don't work best first thing in the morning.
0:06:40 > 0:06:45So I need to have had something occupying my time until the evil hour
0:06:45 > 0:06:50when I've got to sit at the word processor and start... bashing out the next book.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54I read at least one newspaper a day and pretend it's research.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58Mostly what I'm doing is Sudoku and crosswords.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03Writing is a very solitary thing to do.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05You do it yourself in isolation,
0:07:05 > 0:07:09and I suppose he really goes into himself.
0:07:09 > 0:07:14That can be annoying, until I think, "Ah! It's the build-up to a novel."
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Once I realise that that's what's happening, it's fine.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22I just get on with life and he is like a teenage student.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Tangerine Dream, Ricochet.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30I can listen to that all day.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32MUSIC STARTS
0:07:35 > 0:07:39Because I've been using these same albums for years,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42it tells my brain, "We're now in writing mode."
0:07:46 > 0:07:49This is shutting out the real world. You're now in this little bubble.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52And you can write away.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Really, you just want to get it kicked off.
0:07:55 > 0:07:57You want to get some words down on paper.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Hopefully, more than one page.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16"The rain wasn't quite falling yet,
0:08:16 > 0:08:18"but it had scheduled an appointment.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22"There were people here he knew, but probably not many.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26"A gap appeared between two of the mourners
0:08:26 > 0:08:29"and he caught a glimpse of the graveside.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35"Christ, he needed a cigarette."
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Without giving too much away at the moment,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45from page one, there's a male of a certain age standing in a cemetery,
0:08:45 > 0:08:50er...watching a cop who he knew
0:08:50 > 0:08:53being put into the ground, er...
0:08:53 > 0:08:56and he's dying for a cigarette.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01So, that gives you the clue as to who this character might be, although I've not named him yet.
0:09:01 > 0:09:08I'm on to page two. One of the mourners is approaching him and he's just about to be named.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22'Ian Rankin is synonymous with Edinburgh.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25'They make for an intriguing pair.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29'The city with a reputation for hiding its secrets
0:09:29 > 0:09:34'and the writer renowned for playing his cards close to his chest.'
0:09:36 > 0:09:40So this is week one, Ian, then? The beginning?
0:09:40 > 0:09:44The beginning of the writing or the beginning of the first draft.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46There's a long road to go.
0:09:46 > 0:09:52Can I ask you who is at the heart of this book?
0:09:52 > 0:09:56- I take it it isn't Rebus. - At the moment, it IS Rebus.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01- Oh, my God!- I wasn't planning a comeback quite this soon for him.
0:10:01 > 0:10:07I was thinking of bringing him back at some point, but the nature of the theme I wanted to explore,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10the nature of the plot, he was the best person for it.
0:10:11 > 0:10:16Yesterday, I was at a funeral - and then I started to write it.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20It's a guy at a funeral, watching from the back.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23He doesn't want to be too close to mortality.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26He doesn't want to see the open grave.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Then I had to think, is his voice still in my head?
0:10:29 > 0:10:32Do we have some unfinished business?
0:10:33 > 0:10:38- ACTOR:- '"John," he said. "Tommy," Rebus replied.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41'"Got to be us one of these days, eh?"
0:10:41 > 0:10:44'"Not yet, though."
0:10:44 > 0:10:47'The two men started walking towards the cemetery gates.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49'Rebus lit up and inhaled.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53'"How long have you been out of the game now?" he asked.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56'"Twelve years and counting. One of the lucky ones."
0:10:56 > 0:10:59'He was holding out his hand.
0:10:59 > 0:11:01'Rebus shook it.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03'"Till the next time, eh?"
0:11:03 > 0:11:07"So long as it's not one of us in the wooden suit."'
0:11:08 > 0:11:12This process in which you have certain ideas and connections,
0:11:12 > 0:11:17- the fact that you went to a funeral, you clearly don't plan funerals.- No!
0:11:17 > 0:11:21- All those things somehow converging. - I know.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25If you were a spiritual person, you would say there's something up there
0:11:25 > 0:11:30that's connecting all these things and bringing the stories to you.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32It's as though the stories are up there,
0:11:32 > 0:11:35waiting to be channelled to you.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40When did you think to yourself, at what point in the last two or three months,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43did you decide, "OK, this one's for Rebus"?
0:11:43 > 0:11:46It wasn't until day one, when I came back from the cafe
0:11:46 > 0:11:50and started to type the scene at the cemetery, when he says,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53"That'll be us one of these days, Rebus."
0:11:53 > 0:11:57It was then I got a little thrill cos I thought, "Yup. It IS him.
0:11:57 > 0:12:02- "It's me and him again." - I think a lot of other people will get a thrill, too.- I hope so.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10What are people going to say in general about this?
0:12:10 > 0:12:12"You've failed with Malcolm Fox.
0:12:12 > 0:12:17"You can't write any other books except ones with this character."
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I don't know. People might think it's a retrograde step.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28I'll be face-to-face with lots of interviewers, reviewers, who'll be saying things like,
0:12:28 > 0:12:35"You brought Rebus back. Is that a failing, a mark that your post-Rebus writing wasn't successful?"
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Always at the back of my mind I've got Conan Doyle
0:12:38 > 0:12:42getting rid of Sherlock Holmes and then bringing him back.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47'Ah yes! This isn't the first time an Edinburgh writer
0:12:47 > 0:12:50'has resurrected a well-loved sleuth.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53'Conan Doyle threw Holmes off a cliff
0:12:53 > 0:12:56'and brought him back from the dead.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58'His readers were delighted,
0:12:58 > 0:13:02'but the author confessed to a nagging guilt about the contrivance.
0:13:04 > 0:13:07'It seems Ian is worrying along similar lines.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11'How can a writer who prides himself on his realism
0:13:11 > 0:13:13'justify Rebus's return?'
0:13:14 > 0:13:16He retired at the end of Exit Music.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21But in that book it was intimated that what he would do would be to...
0:13:21 > 0:13:26apply to join the cold case unit, which exists in Edinburgh.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30And which is staffed mostly by retired detectives
0:13:30 > 0:13:32who look at old unsolved cases.
0:13:32 > 0:13:37The idea I got for the book happened to involve an old unsolved case.
0:13:37 > 0:13:42I thought there's no way I can shoehorn Malcolm Fox into this narrative.
0:13:42 > 0:13:48It would be a lot easier if Rebus did actually go off and had joined the cold case unit
0:13:48 > 0:13:51as a civilian working for the police.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Then this fell into his lap.
0:13:55 > 0:13:59'For Rankin, crime fiction is a means of chronicling our times.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02'His books have explored contemporary themes
0:14:02 > 0:14:06'like sex trafficking, drug dealing and the oil industry.'
0:14:06 > 0:14:08I am looking for reality,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11for something that I think could happen in the real world.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14'So what's on his mind this time?
0:14:14 > 0:14:16'Could it be our ageing workforce?'
0:14:16 > 0:14:22At one time, if you were a police officer in Scotland, if you were uniform, you retired at 55.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25If you were CID, you could work until you were 60.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29The reason that Rebus retired was that he would have been 60,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32but now he's able to work until he's 67 - or soon will be.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37So there's that potential for seven more years of Rebus books.
0:14:39 > 0:14:43- ACTOR:- 'The traffic in Edinburgh was, indeed, a nightmare.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46'Temporary lights, road closures, diversions.
0:14:46 > 0:14:51'Most of it to accommodate a single tram line from the airport to the city centre.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55'While stationary, he checked his phone for messages,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58'unsurprised to find there were none.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02'No urgent cases required his attention.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04'He worked with the long-dead,
0:15:04 > 0:15:08'murder victims forgotten by the world at large.'
0:15:11 > 0:15:14- You haven't yet told us... - The title?- ..what the title is.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17One of the notes I'd made to myself
0:15:17 > 0:15:19was from a Jackie Leven song.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25The line was "standing in another man's grave", which was the refrain.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28I thought that's a really interesting phrase.
0:15:28 > 0:15:31I went to find the song and it was a mondegreen.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34You know what a mondegreen is, Alan? It's a mishearing.
0:15:34 > 0:15:40It comes from an early song, "They slew the bold Sir So-and-So and laid him on the green."
0:15:40 > 0:15:43People heard it as "and Lady Mondegreen".
0:15:43 > 0:15:47I had misheard the line "standing in another man's rain".
0:15:47 > 0:15:51As far as I know, it's called Standing In Another Man's Grave.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Which is great, cos it opens with Rebus at a graveside.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00He goes to his car. There's a Jackie Leven CD playing and he mishears the song.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03- So he does... - Exactly what I did. Yes.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11'Rankin's real life has a habit of finding its way into his books.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16'Although he repeatedly claims that he and Rebus are nothing like one another,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19'they share more than just a love of rock music.'
0:16:19 > 0:16:22I decided early on in the series
0:16:22 > 0:16:25that Rebus would come from the same background as me.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34'Rankin and Rebus are not only from the same Fife town,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37'they grew up on the same street, Craigmead Terrace.'
0:16:37 > 0:16:39My dad was a great storyteller.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44We didn't have many books in the house, but he was a wonderful liar!
0:16:44 > 0:16:49He had a wee nick in his knee from when he was a kid, he would say it was a bullet wound.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51For years, I believed him that it was a bullet wound.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56It still stuns me when I think that I make more in a year
0:16:56 > 0:17:00than my father made in his working life - he worked for 50 years.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He never earned more than five grand a year.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07For a lot of that time, he earned much less.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11So 50 years of his earnings wouldn't come to what I earn in a year.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16And that's shocking. I sort of wish he was alive to see it.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18I don't spend money on fripperies.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22Just on essentials like beer and vinyl, you know!
0:17:22 > 0:17:26As you can see, I certainly don't spend much money on clothes.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38I tended to live in a world of my own.
0:17:38 > 0:17:44I made Cardenden a more exciting place in my imagination than it might have been in real life.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48I peopled it with zombies and aliens and invading armies
0:17:48 > 0:17:53and I would be the only person who could free it from the oppressor.
0:17:53 > 0:17:56I would hang around the street corner in Cardenden
0:17:56 > 0:17:59with the tough kids, with their Doc Martens and shaved heads.
0:17:59 > 0:18:03But whenever there was a possibility of a rumble, a rammy,
0:18:03 > 0:18:06I'd say, "I've got to go home for my tea now."
0:18:06 > 0:18:10I wouldn't participate. I'd be on the periphery.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14I'd go home and write about it so that I could structure it,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18make things happen on the page the way I wanted them to happen.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20Whereas real life could be messy and chaotic.
0:18:20 > 0:18:26So I guess I've got mixed feelings about the place, because it was a lovely, lovely place to grow up.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30And yet, I did feel at 17, 18, that I had to leave
0:18:30 > 0:18:33so that I could become a writer.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37'Young Rankin moved to Edinburgh in 1978
0:18:37 > 0:18:41'with dreams of becoming a poet, but found a city gripped
0:18:41 > 0:18:44'by a gruesome murder enquiry.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47'The disappearance of two teenage girls,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52'dubbed The World's End murders after a pub they were last seen in,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55'is a crime that remains unsolved to this day.'
0:18:59 > 0:19:01When I started off wanting to be a writer,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04I wanted to make sense of the world,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07to make sense of Edinburgh and then the wider world.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I decided the cop detective was a good means of doing that
0:19:11 > 0:19:15because they have access to the politicians and the big businesses,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18but also the dispossessed and disenfranchised.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22So every layer of society can be explored in this one kind of novel
0:19:22 > 0:19:25with this one character, and that still pertains.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29I'm still asking questions about the world, trying to work out in my head,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33"How does the world work? How is everything connected up?"
0:19:33 > 0:19:38Each book is another small failing to explain that properly to myself,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40so I've got to start again.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46"Deaths along motorways over a series of years, are they connected?"
0:19:46 > 0:19:52"Retired cop (?) Parent of missing kid from years back (?) On a quest."
0:19:55 > 0:19:57"People who frequent motorways.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01"Sleazy, desperate, travellers, truckers, petrol stations,
0:20:01 > 0:20:06"cafes, roadworks guys, AA patrolmen, hitchers, reps, holidaymakers..."
0:20:08 > 0:20:15I'm working hard to make sense of this...fucking plot!
0:20:15 > 0:20:18I'm surrounded by scraps of paper and notes,
0:20:18 > 0:20:23but some of those notes relate to things that are going to happen,
0:20:23 > 0:20:28things that have got to happen within the next few pages, scenes or chapters.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31"A 15-year-old girl has gone missing
0:20:31 > 0:20:35"while hitchhiking along a scenic highway in rural Scotland.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39"The only clue is a photograph sent from her phone.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42"Two detectives, one of them retired, are working the case
0:20:42 > 0:20:46"when they learn that there may be other victims out there,
0:20:46 > 0:20:48"stretching back a decade or more."
0:20:50 > 0:20:54A lot of this comes from your own observations and experience.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00How do the worlds of fiction and the real world...coincide?
0:21:00 > 0:21:03The real world is very messy and incomplete.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Often, questions aren't answered. We can't always make sense of things.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11What the novel does for me is a therapeutic thing of giving a shape.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14I can take all that mess, all these notes and clippings,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19all these moments and mondegreens and give it a shape, give it an arc,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23make it into a story, and that is very satisfying.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25- You can be God! - Of course you're God.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29You ARE God. You have the power of life and death over your characters.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33If someone annoys you, you can bump them off in your books.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41'Hard-boiled Scottish crime writing, or tartan noire, as it's known,
0:21:41 > 0:21:43'is now well-established.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46'But when Rankin started writing the Rebus books,
0:21:46 > 0:21:50'British crime fiction was altogether more genteel,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54'a place of country houses and spinster sleuths.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00'What Rankin did was to bring a shot of reality to the genre.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03'The Edinburgh of his books is a warts and all city,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07'peppered with real characters and real places.'
0:22:09 > 0:22:13A pint of heavy as pulled by a student.
0:22:13 > 0:22:14Useless! She's a nag!
0:22:15 > 0:22:20Finish that. Go back, get a picture of Angela, get her circulated.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23- What are you going to do? - What I do best.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Drinking and thinking.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34'In the novels, Rebus famously does most of his drinking and thinking
0:22:34 > 0:22:36'in the Oxford Bar.'
0:22:36 > 0:22:41When I first started drinking here, I'd started to think about writing this Rebus book.
0:22:41 > 0:22:46Where was he going to drink? This place was full of off-duty cops.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49It was a very popular drinking hole with cops.
0:22:49 > 0:22:55So I thought, this is where Rebus would drink. There's no bells or whistles. No affectation.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59It's hidden away, part of the secret Edinburgh I'm going to write about.
0:22:59 > 0:23:05Then I thought this makes people think they're getting a book about a real guy!
0:23:05 > 0:23:10He lives in a real street, drinks in a real pub, works in a real police station. He must be real.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15I think you said that if you were to meet Rebus, you wouldn't get on.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19No. If he walked into this pub - which he does, regularly -
0:23:19 > 0:23:24and met me, he would see me as being a wishy washy liberal,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28suckled by the state, never had to do a hard day's work in his life.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30All I do is tell lies for a living.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33He wouldn't see that as being a proper job.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38We'd talk about beer, about music for maybe 20 minutes, half an hour.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Then he'd get a bit prickly and he'd have to leave, or I'd have to leave.
0:23:42 > 0:23:46Otherwise he's going to take me outside for a fight.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53He's the bastard responsible for all this. I'm gonna fucking have him!
0:23:53 > 0:23:56- Be careful. - Too late for that now.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Is it true that you couldn't watch the shows?
0:23:59 > 0:24:03- I've still never watched them. - You have never watched...?- No.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I've got them on DVDs, which I've not watched yet.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11I didn't want the books to suddenly be John Hannah or Ken Stott,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15physically or in terms of their intonation or thought process.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19You thought that if you were contaminated or somehow...
0:24:19 > 0:24:22It happened to Colin Dexter with Morse. He says it openly.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27He changed the character of Morse in the books to be more like John Thaw,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31the actor who played him, because he was seduced by the characterisation.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34I don't want to change my character. I know my character.
0:24:34 > 0:24:40If he's going to change, I want him to change for other reasons, not because an actor's taken him on.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43So I thought I'm not going near the TV.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52'The mark of a great character
0:24:52 > 0:24:56'is one who exists in such a tangible way in the reader's mind
0:24:56 > 0:24:59'that he can withstand many interpretations.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04'I would say Rebus is a great character -
0:25:04 > 0:25:08'although he hasn't always been so well loved.'
0:25:10 > 0:25:13I've got my diary here from 1987.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16March 19th, which was a Thursday,
0:25:16 > 0:25:19was publication day for Knots & Crosses,
0:25:19 > 0:25:22the first book to feature John Rebus.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24He wasn't an inspector. He was a detective sergeant.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28It says, "Publication Day, which was no big thing.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31"I like it before my books are published, when I can dream of greatness.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34"Afterwards, there is only cold reality."
0:25:34 > 0:25:36There were a few reviews and a real stinker.
0:25:36 > 0:25:42"Yesterday..." name erased "..reviewed my book in the Glasgow Herald, a real hatchet job
0:25:42 > 0:25:44"with nary a word of praise.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49"Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard" it says! CHUCKLES
0:25:51 > 0:25:54'Because the early Rebus books weren't selling,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57'Rankin had no choice but to diversify.'
0:25:57 > 0:26:01I did go through a period where I wrote thrillers under a pseudonym,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04aimed at an international airport audience, really.
0:26:04 > 0:26:09- That sounds opportunistic of you, Ian.- It was. I was skint.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13I was writing Rebus novels but nobody was buying them
0:26:13 > 0:26:17in great numbers, so I wasn't making enough money to feed my family.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23I had to write two novels a year. My publisher did not want two Rebus novels a year.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26They had enough trouble selling one. So I wrote thrillers.
0:26:26 > 0:26:32But I didn't like it as much as I liked writing A, about Scotland and B, about cops.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37'After ten years of mid-list obscurity,
0:26:37 > 0:26:41'Rankin finally broke through with his eighth Rebus book,
0:26:41 > 0:26:43'Black And Blue.
0:26:43 > 0:26:47'Richly detailed and broader in scope than his previous books,
0:26:47 > 0:26:49'Black And Blue evoked the social,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53'political and criminal landscape of modern Scotland.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56'It was awarded the Gold Dagger,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00'and propelled Ian from struggling genre writer
0:27:00 > 0:27:01'to blockbusting author
0:27:01 > 0:27:06'whose every book since has been a Number One best-seller.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10'But with success comes a greater pressure to deliver,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14'a pressure made worse by the fact that, as he writes this new book,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18'he still doesn't have a clear idea of where the story is going.'
0:27:18 > 0:27:21The fear has arrived.
0:27:21 > 0:27:28Every book before you start is a kind of notion of a perfect book that you're going to write.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33As you begin to write it, the notion of perfection begins to fall away.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36That's happening, so the fear now is that when I look at the book,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40what I've written so far, it won't be very good.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44And the other fear is that I'm not going to know how it's going to end.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49I don't know if I've shown you the quote on the wall in my study,
0:27:49 > 0:27:51but it is quite pertinent.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53It sits above my computer.
0:27:53 > 0:28:00"Every book is the wreck of a perfect idea," says Iris Murdoch.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07So that's where I am, the wreck of a perfect idea.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14- MIRANDA:- This is where we're at its toughest, where he's writing daily,
0:28:14 > 0:28:18not absolutely certain where he's going.
0:28:18 > 0:28:23One of my things to do is to remind him which phase he's in when he's writing.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27We always talk about the 65-page pause,
0:28:27 > 0:28:32where he has poured onto the page all the things he's thought about,
0:28:32 > 0:28:35all his ideas are down in black and white.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Then he kind of runs out of steam and he's always saying,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41"It's going really badly." I say, "You're at page 65?"
0:28:41 > 0:28:45He says, "I am at page 65." And I say, "It'll be all right."
0:28:47 > 0:28:51A lot of people would be surprised that you leave so much open.
0:28:51 > 0:28:58Do you know what Rebus is going to find at the end? What's the last few pages, few chapters?
0:28:58 > 0:29:03I've got a sense of where the book might end up,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07but I've got no idea what's going to happen in the intervening 300 pages.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10The first draft is me being the detective,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14finding out how these characters connect to these characters,
0:29:14 > 0:29:17finding out places we need to go, interesting scenes.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21And then the book will say we want to go in this direction now.
0:29:21 > 0:29:26Not the direction you thought you were going in, but this one is more interesting.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28So the first draft is me feeling my way,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31as the detective is doing, towards a solution.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36Usually, it turns out to be different from where I thought it was going to go.
0:29:36 > 0:29:42Which is a thrill, but I wouldn't recommend it as a way of writing a book.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50'As well as the Rebus novels, Rankin has written a number of stand-alone books.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54'One is being turned into a TV drama starring Stephen Fry.
0:29:55 > 0:30:00'Doors Open is a thriller about a banker, a professor and a self-made millionaire
0:30:00 > 0:30:03'who conspire to pull off an art heist.'
0:30:03 > 0:30:07I'd heard of Ian Rankin. I knew he was an immensely successful writer.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10His books always zoomed to the top of the charts.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14And I'd watched Rebus, both in his young incarnation
0:30:14 > 0:30:17played by John Hannah, and then the older...
0:30:17 > 0:30:21- SCOTTISH ACCENT - ..and slightly darker Ken Stott.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23And I'd loved them both.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26'Ian may stay away from the Rebus programmes,
0:30:26 > 0:30:32'but he acknowledges there are certain advantages to having your work televised.'
0:30:32 > 0:30:35In the UK, to be a Number One best-seller,
0:30:35 > 0:30:39you probably have to sell 20,000 or 30,000 paperbacks in any given week.
0:30:39 > 0:30:42And a Rebus novel or an Ian Rankin novel
0:30:42 > 0:30:46might end up selling 250,000 copies in paperback.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Five to ten million people could watch it on TV!
0:30:49 > 0:30:55If a fraction of them who haven't bought the books buy the books, you're making a bit of extra income.
0:30:55 > 0:30:57And, action!
0:30:57 > 0:31:01- You started without me.- I warn you, Alan, I'm not in the mood.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04If you're not at the dinner, you're probably on the menu.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Thank you, Robert...
0:31:07 > 0:31:11It's really interesting watching three characters who, until now,
0:31:11 > 0:31:15have only been words on the page for me or characters inside my head.
0:31:15 > 0:31:17Suddenly, they have human shape.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22I think all three look pretty much perfect, as far as casting goes.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24So that's very pleasing.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28A lot of dialogue is stuff I didn't write, it was added by James Mavor,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32better lines than mine in some cases, which is really annoying.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36'Screenwriter James Mavor is an old university friend,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39'and can remember a time when not everything Ian wrote
0:31:39 > 0:31:42'turned to gold.'
0:31:42 > 0:31:47We started up a magazine, a fanzine for writing, called Sharp Edges.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50- My first publisher.- Wonderful name.
0:31:50 > 0:31:53First stuff I ever got in print was in that magazine.
0:31:53 > 0:31:58- We published two issues of some quite embarrassing poetry, I think. - Yes.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01- Which I happen to have here! - No, please.
0:32:01 > 0:32:07This is classic, vintage memorabilia, Sharp Edges.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10Ian's poem there with a lovely illustration.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13- I'll just read the first two lines. - Go on.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16"Cejan, in a listless frame of mind,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19"paints mauve sketches of the homeland
0:32:19 > 0:32:22"far beyond the greying mists of Bern."
0:32:22 > 0:32:25- There's so much wrong with that. - It's very good(!)
0:32:25 > 0:32:29In the second one, there's a poem about a one-night stand.
0:32:29 > 0:32:33Let's not even go near that one. No. Let's not go near that one.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37'Thankfully, for all involved, Ian ditched the poetry
0:32:37 > 0:32:39'and took up crime writing.'
0:32:39 > 0:32:43Crime actually provides a better snapshot, I think,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46of the culture, the milieu in which it's set,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48than any other genre.
0:32:48 > 0:32:54Sometimes, really good genre writing is a lot better than mediocre great literature.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58I think Rebus fits in very well. Young Rebus is kind of hopeful.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02He believes that, not only can you solve the crime, the case,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05but that in each case he solves he'll somehow...
0:33:05 > 0:33:08make Edinburgh a better place.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10Then the older Rebus, when you meet him,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13has given up that idea entirely.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17He can solve the case, and he needs to solve the case,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20but he no longer believes that in unlocking one case,
0:33:20 > 0:33:23somehow he's making Edinburgh better.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27He's become a pessimist, and one feels very sorry for him.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30I think that it's an extraordinary journey.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34There are not many equivalents because most of the great figures
0:33:34 > 0:33:38like Holmes, Poirot and Miss Marple stay the same, absolutely the same.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40But there's real growth in Rebus.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48- ACTOR:- '"The job's changed, Siobhan. Everything's..."
0:33:48 > 0:33:50'He struggled to find the words.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54'"You're vinyl. We're digital," Clarke offered.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59'"Contacts used to be the way you got things done.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03'"The only network that mattered was the one out on the street."
0:34:03 > 0:34:07'"Your way works, too, John. Don't go thinking you're obsolete."
0:34:07 > 0:34:11'She pointed to his nearly empty glass. "Are we having another?"
0:34:12 > 0:34:14'"Might as well, eh?"'
0:34:16 > 0:34:20The slight problem with this new book, it doesn't start with a crime scene.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23People will tell you that's a mistake.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26If you want to sell loads of copies of your crime novel,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30the crime has got to happen page one, grip the reader from page one.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33I've made a note to myself, "If this looks too slow,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37"put in a little bit right at the start in italics."
0:34:37 > 0:34:40LAUGHING: From the killer's point of view! It's such a cliche!
0:34:40 > 0:34:45- I sense you partly did this because... - It's a different kind of book.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49And because you're bringing Rebus back and having to say to the world,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52- "This is Rebus now. He's a different person."- He is.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56- It's a different kind of book and, also, it's a character study.- Yeah.
0:34:56 > 0:35:00It's a study of loss because I want him to get to know someone
0:35:00 > 0:35:04whose child went missing many years ago.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09They have never managed to escape that moment. They're still looking for their child.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12So they come to Rebus saying, "There's a connection.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15"People keep going missing and nobody's noticed."
0:35:15 > 0:35:20The cops always dismissed them as being too wrapped up in this moment
0:35:20 > 0:35:22when their child went missing.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25But Rebus has a connection with him.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29There's an empathy there, so he decides to do a bit of digging.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31He starts to believe their story.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35There's a tight relationship between them that I want to happen.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39So it's much more a book about loss and memory and mortality
0:35:39 > 0:35:41and letting go of people,
0:35:41 > 0:35:45than it is a story about a whodunit/serial killer.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Maybe nobody will buy it, of course. Maybe everybody will be put off.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59Reviewers will say, "Mr Rankin is writing a different kind of book and it's not good."
0:36:01 > 0:36:05I've just had a fairly good few days.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09In that what I put down on the page seemed to be...
0:36:11 > 0:36:13..good stuff.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17I was enjoying it and it did seem to be pushing the plot forward.
0:36:17 > 0:36:22On the other hand, late last night, I suddenly got the fear again,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26that I really don't know where this book is going, even at this stage.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28It just seems to be a bit random
0:36:28 > 0:36:31and...not hugely exciting.
0:36:31 > 0:36:37I was going to take a day off on Monday because I'm taking the train down to London
0:36:37 > 0:36:44for my publisher's 20th anniversary party, where I'm going to be giving a speech, which I've not written yet.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48I'll take the manuscript with me and read it on the train,
0:36:48 > 0:36:51and try and get to grips with it - again.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57To just see if it's as...bad as I think it is.
0:37:03 > 0:37:08MUSIC: "Miss You" by The Rolling Stones
0:37:08 > 0:37:10HUM OF CONVERSATION
0:37:15 > 0:37:17I love Ian Rankin.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20I love his stories. They're very gritty, very real.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24- When you know Ian, he's such a nice man!- You go, "It'll be fine."
0:37:24 > 0:37:29Then you turn the page and go, "No, it really isn't fine!
0:37:29 > 0:37:32"There's another body!" And the creative way they've died.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37- You care about the characters. - You do.- So he makes the people real.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42His characters are people that are flawed, but that you're rooting for.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46He's wonderful at plotting.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50If you want to start reading any crime fiction, possibly any novel,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52start with Ian Rankin.
0:37:52 > 0:37:5730% of my head is here and 70% is in Edinburgh, writing the new book.
0:37:57 > 0:37:59So it's a kind of weird experience.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03On the train, I was reading the new book, the manuscript,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05thinking what's got to happen next.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09This is just tearing me away from something I really want to be doing.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19'I'm not a huge fan of big gatherings of people.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21'I'm a bit claustrophobic.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25'There are people trying to get you to go to their festival,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29'journalists who are after a little titbit for the next day's paper.
0:38:29 > 0:38:35'You're trying to say hello to everybody, not drink too much so you don't get stupid.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39'Most of my brain is being taken up with this book.'
0:38:44 > 0:38:47It's still a weird roller coaster. One day I'm enjoying it.
0:38:47 > 0:38:52The next I'm not. One day I think it's OK. The next, it's dreadful.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57We're two-thirds of the way through the book and there's still stuff I don't know what's going to happen.
0:38:57 > 0:39:02I've got a good idea what's going to happen in the next five or ten pages, but not the pages after that.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12There's lots to be afraid of - the fear of the next page.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16The next day when you go, "I've no idea what's going on here."
0:39:16 > 0:39:19I panic and think, "I really don't know what's going on.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22"I don't feel in control of this process."
0:39:22 > 0:39:27And you've just got to kind of hang on and get through it.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33- MIRANDA:- The role of his family during this period is trying to get out from under his feet.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36It's organising the February break - away!
0:39:36 > 0:39:39Where am I going to take the kids away for Easter?
0:39:39 > 0:39:43It's sort of staying out of his way while he gets on with it.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48It just takes an awful lot of psychological and emotional energy to do it.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52It's not that he is a person who doesn't care about his family
0:39:52 > 0:39:56and is not going to interact with us on a human basis.
0:39:56 > 0:39:59It's just how he is - now.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01It will be a passing phase.
0:40:10 > 0:40:12Well, here it is.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16The first draft is finished.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21It's ragged, very ragged.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27I'm not at all happy with the last 30 or 40 pages.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30This is where the magic happens!
0:40:30 > 0:40:34This is where the magic happens. (SIGHS)
0:40:36 > 0:40:40Doesn't feel like magic at the moment. It feels like hard work.
0:40:40 > 0:40:42With a lot more hard work ahead.
0:40:49 > 0:40:50Hey ho.
0:40:53 > 0:40:57I've seen first drafts in worse shape, I just can't think when.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03'It may be rough and ready, but Ian does finally have his plot.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07'The book sees Rebus travelling up and down the A9,
0:41:07 > 0:41:09'in search of missing persons,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13'who may or may not be murder victims.'
0:41:13 > 0:41:17Inverness, where some of the investigation takes place.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Then we go up the A9,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24and across to Rosemarkie.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28Drive past Tain and we come to this place here,
0:41:28 > 0:41:30Edderton.
0:41:31 > 0:41:33'There's something else about this book,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36'a special treat for Rankin fans.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40'Ian's decided to bring together his two leading men,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43'Rebus and Malcolm Fox, for the very first time.'
0:41:43 > 0:41:49Oh, boy! You get a very different version of Malcolm Fox from the two Malcolm Fox novels.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52In The Complaints and The Impossible Dead,
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Malcolm comes across as a really nice guy.
0:41:55 > 0:41:59When you start to see him through Rebus's eyes you go, "What a shit!
0:41:59 > 0:42:03"He's just tried to destroy our pal, Rebus. Why would he do that?
0:42:03 > 0:42:07"Rebus is the good guy." So that's quite fun.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11'The book is still far from finished.
0:42:11 > 0:42:13'There are characters who need fleshing out,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17'sub-plots and red herrings to be added.'
0:42:17 > 0:42:21Here, for example, that's all notes on things that I want to happen.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28The same with this, stuff that I want to add to the second draft.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33'But by now, surely, Ian has solved the most important mystery of all.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35'Or has he?'
0:42:35 > 0:42:39I don't think I've ever written a book where, so close to the end,
0:42:39 > 0:42:45I'd no idea who the offender was.
0:42:45 > 0:42:50I got some crazy ideas in the course of writing this book as to who the killer might be.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55Here we go. Page 273, which is... nine pages from the end of the first draft.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58I'm going, "Oh! Another possibility.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02"This guy could be the killer." LAUGHS
0:43:02 > 0:43:06That just... It's not right. It's not right.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12MUSIC: "Midnight Rambler" by the Rolling Stones
0:43:15 > 0:43:20'Before he starts on the second draft, Ian must turn detective
0:43:20 > 0:43:22'and embark on a fact-checking mission,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26'retracing Rebus's journey up the A9.'
0:43:26 > 0:43:30It's become quite important to me that I get the details right.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32Didn't use to be in the early days.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36Now that I'm making a good living telling lies about real professions,
0:43:36 > 0:43:40I feel I owe it to them to get the details of their jobs right.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44Perth to Inverness, 114 miles.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50There's an awful lot of this stuff I could get by going online.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54What does the outside of the police station in Inverness look like?
0:43:54 > 0:43:57I could stick in the postcode and find out.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00That's not the same as standing in front of it.
0:44:00 > 0:44:03I need to imprint it in my head.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07Which means taking the road trip myself, the trip Rebus would have taken.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10# ..Talkin' 'bout the midnight rambler, yeah
0:44:10 > 0:44:13# The one you never seen before... #
0:44:17 > 0:44:19'One of the major scenes in the book
0:44:19 > 0:44:24'takes place in the small seaside village of Rosemarkie.'
0:44:27 > 0:44:29So Rebus goes down onto the beach.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34"What is it you're afraid of?" Rebus inquired, receiving no answer.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36Magrath had hauled himself onto the roadway.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40The note I've made is, "Does he need to climb?
0:44:40 > 0:44:43"Check when I'm at Rosemarkie." He wouldn't be able to climb up.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47He's a retired police officer, around 70 years old.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50There's no way he's climbing over the wall.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53He would be taking the steps.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57So, I can get that tiny detail in for my own satisfaction.
0:44:57 > 0:45:02The more research you do, the more you want to show people you've done the research,
0:45:02 > 0:45:06so you put too much of it in, and that slows down the story.
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Having done this road trip, it'll probably boil down to half a page.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20Day two of the road trip, and the weather has changed spectacularly.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23The first thing to do is to get on to the A9,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27start heading north again until we get to Edderton.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Hopefully, I don't need to make too many changes to what I've written,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34i.e. the landscape will be as I have imagined it.
0:45:36 > 0:45:39'The clue that links the missing persons
0:45:39 > 0:45:43'is that every one of them sent a photo of a wild Scottish landscape
0:45:43 > 0:45:47'from their mobile phone at the time of their disappearance.
0:45:48 > 0:45:54'A public appeal to identify the landscape leads Rebus to the tiny village of Edderton,
0:45:54 > 0:45:58'where a police sniffer dog makes a shocking discovery.'
0:46:00 > 0:46:05I'd say this is ideal. These woods work well as the place where the bodies are.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13This is ridiculous. It's almost exactly as I'd imagined it would be
0:46:13 > 0:46:16from looking at a map, just a name on a map,
0:46:16 > 0:46:20and thinking, "If I go up that road, maybe there'll be fields,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22"hills in the distance."
0:46:22 > 0:46:25I mean, I've described this already in the book.
0:46:25 > 0:46:31This is spot-on. Even the weather, because when Rebus comes up here, the weather is minging.
0:46:31 > 0:46:33The police need to wear wellies.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36Even the fact that you can see tyre tracks.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40In the book, a search is being made of the fields,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44but stuff's found in the woods next to the fields by a sniffer dog.
0:46:49 > 0:46:53- ACTOR:- '"What is it?" Rebus asked, trying to catch his breath.
0:46:53 > 0:46:58'In answer, the handler directed the torch to a spot just beyond Ruby.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03'The dog turned her head in the same direction, licking her chops.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05'The earth had been disturbed
0:47:05 > 0:47:09'and Rebus knew what it was he was being shown.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14'An all too human hand jutting up from the makeshift grave.'
0:47:17 > 0:47:23I mean, genuinely, you could leave a body here in these woods
0:47:23 > 0:47:27and I have my doubts it would be found for years and years and years.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31A spot that could be very peaceful and beautiful, but also,
0:47:31 > 0:47:35can be a place where bad people have done bad things.
0:47:35 > 0:47:37And hidden the evidence.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45I'm not an outdoorsy type at all.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50I'd much rather be in a pub or a cafe or a cinema or a book shop
0:47:50 > 0:47:53than be clambering over hills going "fol-da-ro, fol-da-ra".
0:47:53 > 0:47:56It's just not my thing, but one of the things I've got to do
0:47:56 > 0:48:00is to get inside the character's head, rather than my head.
0:48:00 > 0:48:03What would Rebus see when he looks at that?
0:48:03 > 0:48:07I'm not sure he'd be seeing much at all. He's thinking about the case.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12He's thinking about his next cigarette, his next pint or nip of whisky.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16He's probably thinking, "How far am I from the nearest pub?
0:48:16 > 0:48:21"This is probably the furthest I've ever been from a pub in my entire life," he's thinking.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25That's not bad. I might actually put that in the book. CHUCKLES
0:48:25 > 0:48:31Rebus might be wondering if this is the furthest he's ever been from a pub in his entire life.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34'Maybe he's getting low on cigarettes, as well.'
0:48:34 > 0:48:38TURNS RECORDER OFF There you are. That kind of stuff.
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Tiny nuggets which will definitely make it into the book.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43Anyway, I suppose I'd better get to it.
0:48:48 > 0:48:50'With the research done,
0:48:50 > 0:48:54'Ian will spend the next few weeks working on his second draft.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59'The deadline for the book is now just eight weeks away
0:48:59 > 0:49:02'and still, no-one has seen a word.'
0:49:02 > 0:49:06Agent and publisher, at the moment, know the title.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10And they know that, at the moment, Rebus is the main character.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15That's all they know. They don't know the plot. YOU know more than they do.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19So sharing this with us isn't something you'd normally do?
0:49:19 > 0:49:23No. I mean, I might talk to my wife, if I was having a problem.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27She would say, "What's the new one about?" I'd tell her it's a road trip, missing persons.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31The past, mortality. But in the main, I don't talk to anyone.
0:49:31 > 0:49:36In the past, my publishers haven't had much of an idea what the book is about until I deliver it to them.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43'The return of Rebus is too juicy a publicity opportunity to miss.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47'Ian's publishers have decided to make a big splash
0:49:47 > 0:49:49'and announce Rebus's return
0:49:49 > 0:49:51'at the Hay-on-Wye Festival.'
0:49:51 > 0:49:53We know that you do a book a year.
0:49:53 > 0:49:57You must be working on something different now.
0:49:57 > 0:50:01I wondered what you were up to, what you were planning.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04I started writing the book in January this year.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07It'll come out at the beginning of November.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09And, um... It is Rebus.
0:50:10 > 0:50:12He's back. He's back.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14APPLAUSE
0:50:16 > 0:50:19I'm afraid we have run out of time.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Thank you, Ian, for talking to us.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24SHE LAUGHS Thank YOU.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26And thank you, audience.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32'Oh, THAT seemed to go well.
0:50:41 > 0:50:45'But back in Edinburgh, things don't look quite so rosy.'
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Two pages dedicated to the fact that it's going to be a disaster,
0:50:51 > 0:50:53by Tiffany Jenkins, who hasn't read the book yet.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57"Who can blame Ian Rankin for milking it?
0:50:57 > 0:51:01"Maybe it's time someone had a word. Rebus, you're past it. Stop embarrassing yourself."
0:51:01 > 0:51:04I've no idea why she thinks...
0:51:04 > 0:51:09There is isn't an argument there as to why Rebus shouldn't come back.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12If it's a crap book, he probably shouldn't come back.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16There's got to be somebody who says, "That's going to be rubbish!"
0:51:16 > 0:51:20It's never, "That is rubbish." It's, "That's going to be rubbish.
0:51:20 > 0:51:24"I've not read it. I probably won't read it. I'm not a fan of the books.
0:51:24 > 0:51:27"I've read very few of them. It's going to be rubbish."
0:51:29 > 0:51:35'Buoyed by all the positivity in the press, Ian ploughs on.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39'He's been writing for five months,
0:51:39 > 0:51:43'and the publisher's deadline has loomed ominously into view.'
0:51:45 > 0:51:50So, here is the third draft printed out.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55You're thinking, "Well, that's it, then. That's the hard work done."
0:51:55 > 0:51:58Nothing could be further from the truth.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01When you write a book, when you write it for your own entertainment
0:52:01 > 0:52:04and you finish it to your satisfaction,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08it is the perfect novel, the best novel that's ever been written.
0:52:08 > 0:52:13Or the best novel in your genre that's ever been written, or the best novel that you've ever written.
0:52:13 > 0:52:18You start showing it to people, and that's when it ceasing to be the perfect novel.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28PHONE RINGS
0:52:28 > 0:52:30Hello?
0:52:30 > 0:52:32Fuck off. Fuck off!
0:52:33 > 0:52:35Fucking PPI helplines!
0:52:37 > 0:52:40I wouldn't be surprised if the next villain in my book
0:52:40 > 0:52:43is someone who runs a PPI helpline.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46Every day, I get three or four automated messages.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49And if you swear at them they don't go away.
0:52:51 > 0:52:55'Ian has now had feedback on his third draft from his editor.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01'Caroline Oakley has been editing Rankin's books for 20 years.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04'Even though she no longer works for Orion,
0:53:04 > 0:53:09'she still edits one book a year, at Ian's insistence.'
0:53:09 > 0:53:13"Hi, Ian. Much enjoyed this one, but I do have a couple of things for you to consider.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18"I think the prologue could be tightened up and not so much of an obvious info dump." Thanks(!)
0:53:18 > 0:53:22I'm known for my comments being quite blunt and quite pointed.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26I think Ian appreciates that because what he gets from me is straight.
0:53:26 > 0:53:31She doesn't like what I've done with Malcolm Fox in the book, basically.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35My big issue with it was the whole character of Malcolm Fox,
0:53:35 > 0:53:37as he is portrayed in this book.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40As his editor, I'm not just looking at this book,
0:53:40 > 0:53:44I have in my head the previous books.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Also, I'm thinking about what comes next. Where do we go from here?
0:53:47 > 0:53:52Fox does not come over as a particularly rounded character.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56And I think for readers who've grown to know and like him,
0:53:56 > 0:53:59they love him from the previous two books,
0:53:59 > 0:54:01to me, he didn't make sense.
0:54:01 > 0:54:05"You're right to make this a Rebus novel, not Rebus and Fox,
0:54:05 > 0:54:08"but Malcolm's got to make sense in context."
0:54:08 > 0:54:11I mean, I think it does make sense in context.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14It is frustrating to me that, after all these years,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18I still don't seem to know what I'm doing, you know.
0:54:18 > 0:54:21Having written 27, 28, 30 books,
0:54:21 > 0:54:26um... I still need "an amount" of editing.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30One of the reasons I like Ian is he can be a bit of a curmudgeon,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32he can be a bit awkward.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36He's just a bloke. He doesn't come with any airs or graces.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38You take him as you find him.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42I like his honesty and I think you can read that honesty in the books.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46It's not flashy, in a great literary sense.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48But it's real.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52To achieve real when you're writing fiction is bloody difficult to do.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56She's a good editor and she's been editing me for donkey's years.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58And we...
0:54:58 > 0:55:02This happens, book after book, this stuff that she will ask me to do
0:55:02 > 0:55:05that I really don't feel like doing.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08I look at the book again and think, "She's right about that."
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Or sometimes, "No, still don't agree with her."
0:55:16 > 0:55:18TYPING
0:55:18 > 0:55:21It's finessing it, smoothing it down with very fine sandpaper.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24That's the stage I'm at now, I think.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26If I was an absolute perfectionist,
0:55:26 > 0:55:32I would just keep refining and refining forever and a day, and the book would never be published.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36There comes a point where you've got to say, "I can do no more."
0:55:36 > 0:55:38And it's time to let it go.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42It's, um...
0:55:42 > 0:55:45five to one in the morning.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47I promised my publisher
0:55:47 > 0:55:50I would have the rewrites done by the end of June.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55And I have, literally, just finished the book.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58Um...
0:55:58 > 0:55:59Again!
0:55:59 > 0:56:05Literally, just finished the book again and possibly for the last time, who knows?
0:56:11 > 0:56:13So you finished the book.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16Yeah. Ish. LAUGHS
0:56:16 > 0:56:19- Today? - Yeah, 1am. 11 hours ago.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24I got to the very end of the rewrite. The ending had a lot of work done on it.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27So today, when you guys leave,
0:56:27 > 0:56:32I will, um, get on to my email and send it off to my publisher in London,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35my agent in London, my film and TV agent in London,
0:56:35 > 0:56:39my agent in New York and my publisher in New York. Five people will get it.
0:56:39 > 0:56:43How does it feel to have written the book, to have finished it?
0:56:43 > 0:56:49It's always good to have an idea for a book, a theme, a story you want to tell,
0:56:49 > 0:56:54and bring it through to completion and be happy with it, that's great.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58All the fear that I had during the writing of the first draft has gone.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03But now, I'm kind of bored with it. There are no surprises for me in that story any more.
0:57:03 > 0:57:08I'm ready to move on to the next project, to the next set of characters, to the next theme.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12- I just don't know what it is yet. - You REALLY don't know?- I've no idea!
0:57:12 > 0:57:17- You seem quite cheerful about that. - If I run out of stories, I'll start to panic.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19But I've not run out yet.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24'The book is written
0:57:24 > 0:57:28'and now, the serious matter of press and publicity begins.'
0:57:28 > 0:57:32- I'm hoping I've got the right key. - So am I!
0:57:35 > 0:57:39# Police and thieves in the streets
0:57:40 > 0:57:42# Oh, yeah!
0:57:42 > 0:57:44# Scaring the nation with their
0:57:45 > 0:57:48# Guns and ammunition... #
0:57:49 > 0:57:53A look of resignation that you may not be getting out of this.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57# ..Fighting the nation with their
0:57:58 > 0:58:00# Guns and ammunition... #
0:58:02 > 0:58:05- Have you got the key?- Somewhere. - Somewhere?
0:58:05 > 0:58:07I've got a plane to catch!