Janet Christie meets Ian Rankin in the Oxford Bar to discuss his latest book

The Scotsman

Janet Christie chats with Ian Rankin about new Rebus book, Midnight and Blue

Transcript

00:00This is Janet Christie, lifestyle journalist, Scotsman,

00:04who is writing around Karen Rebus' book called Hub,

00:07which is obviously a buy, in Edinburgh.

00:10We're here to talk about the latest Rebus book,

00:13one of the must-read books of the year.

00:17Very creaky seats.

00:19Again, obviously, very creaky pews.

00:23Very creaky pews.

00:24Aside, what can you tell us about your book?

00:28Well, I never didn't write it.

00:32Well, I thought the previous book ended well.

00:35I thought it would make a really good ending to the series.

00:38You've got Rebus on trial.

00:39He's an adult.

00:40His sentence is about to be pronounced.

00:42I thought that's a really good ending to a series.

00:44Nice open ending.

00:45The right can buy thoughts.

00:47Yeah.

00:48But fans disagreed.

00:50They said, we need to know what happened.

00:51We need to know, was he found guilty?

00:53Was he found innocent?

00:54Well, okay.

00:55And so I thought, well, what do you reckon?

00:57Well, it stands to reason he'd be found guilty,

00:59which means he would go to jail.

01:02And he would go to Saughton Prison, HMP Edinburgh,

01:07where he'd be surrounded by people he couldn't decide,

01:10as a detector, or people he didn't,

01:13because he was a tie-back.

01:15I'm one of them.

01:17So I just thought, oh, it's an accident.

01:19There's drama there from the get-go.

01:20There's tension and drama and risk.

01:22And then I thought, what happens if I'm no longer in jail

01:24and it's an impossible money?

01:26I'll let it settle the mystery.

01:28There's a branch of crime fiction called the locked room mystery.

01:32If I don't return the people, then I'll let it settle the mystery.

01:35So you open the cell in the morning.

01:36Prisoner's dead.

01:37No wounded weapon.

01:38Who did it?

01:39Me.

01:40Who are you going to ask to investigate?

01:41Well, the readers.

01:43So I just thought, that's great.

01:45And then I thought, I need to know about Saughton jail.

01:48I love it.

01:49And I called in a few favours, and I gave them a tour.

01:52And I'm actually about to go back.

01:55I'm going to talk to the prisoners as a favour to the librarians.

01:59Right.

02:00Then it's like being chased.

02:01Yeah.

02:02Yeah.

02:03It's a real life.

02:04A totally fictitious librarian in my book.

02:08And some of the stuff that happens in the prison in my book,

02:11called it, would not happen in real life or couldn't happen in real life.

02:15But the details, I think, are fairly correct.

02:17My publisher, when I sent him the manuscript, said,

02:20you never really describe what the prisoners are wearing.

02:22And I couldn't remember.

02:24Although I'd been there two years in jail, I just couldn't remember.

02:26So I said, I'll be calling that favour again.

02:28Emailed the governor.

02:29The governor told me what they wear.

02:31So I've got all those details correct.

02:33They speak quite a few colours.

02:35Colour coded.

02:36Colour coded.

02:37Yeah.

02:38So that's the reason I went in.

02:39On their own call, they don't call them waiters.

02:41They call them malls.

02:42One of the things, a little Arlington hungs in there.

02:45On the holiday, they can wear whatever they like.

02:47But as soon as they go out of sight to a different part of the prison

02:50or out of the prison, they're colour coded.

02:52So the authorities know what kind of prison they're dealing with.

02:55Whether it's a lifeguard, a sex offender.

03:00So I learned that.

03:02Do you have to dress differently to go in?

03:04No.

03:05All that happens is you go through a scanner like at an airport

03:09and your phone is taken away and your phone is put in a locker

03:12and you can't go by phones around in.

03:15And again, I checked for the last one.

03:18What if it is coming here?

03:20And they went, well, they probably would be okay bringing that phone in.

03:24So you'd have to double check.

03:26I'm coming out.

03:27It's the same phone.

03:28So that's the one thing.

03:30I shouldn't tell you this, but what the hell.

03:32The one thing that's unrealistic.

03:34I said to the doctor, look, I've got an ex-cop

03:36and he's going to be in this jail

03:38and he'll be around three o'clock.

03:40Put it away.

03:41He went, we'll probably send him to Inverness.

03:44We probably wouldn't have nearly as many enemies and non-facings.

03:49And I went, oh, no, I don't want to be sent to Inverness or Perth.

03:53I want to be sent to Edinburgh.

03:55So that's the one thing that's possibly unrealistic.

03:58But being put away in a secure section of the jail is what would happen.

04:03And then, of course, I finessed it

04:04so that Rebus is allowed out into the general population.

04:07Probably he wouldn't be, probably in real life.

04:09He'd be kept in isolation.

04:11I sat in my way when he got out of the bus.

04:13Yeah, yeah.

04:14And the one who joined us wondered that Christy is in England.

04:21So you started the Rebus stumbles in this, you know,

04:25but I used to write about Rebus 25 books on.

04:28You mean that next week?

04:29I know, Jodie, obviously.

04:31I mean, I guess because he's just a very useful means of investigating the world.

04:37He stands in for me.

04:38He questions the world on my behalf.

04:41He's an intriguing character.

04:43He's charismatic.

04:44I still don't quite know what makes him tick.

04:47I'm not quite up to the centre of him, the core of him.

04:51And he keeps changing.

04:52So he's an interesting character to write about because he keeps changing.

04:55So, for example, a few books ago, I gave him COPD.

04:59So then when I went into the prison, I said, so what would happen?

05:03And he said, well, we've got NHS nurses here working all the week,

05:07and he would get his inhaler and everything else.

05:10And I said, but you've got to be careful, of course, with the inhalers,

05:13the puffers, because prisoners like to use them for bones.

05:17So that's in the book.

05:19That detail is in the book as well.

05:22So, yeah, so every time I think I'm done with him,

05:26I have something else I think, well, what have I done?

05:28I've put him in this situation.

05:29I learn about him by putting him in that situation.

05:32Yeah.

05:33And what did you learn about Beavis in prison?

05:36That he's a really good detective.

05:39And he's strong.

05:41If you give him something to do, he'll do it.

05:43That he's not as tough as he used to be.

05:46I mean, he's physically not this able to, he doesn't win fights anymore.

05:50I mean, he gets in trouble a couple of times in this book physically,

05:54and there's nothing he can do about it.

05:58He's a 70-year-old man with COPD.

06:00He is.

06:01I've learned that he quite likes prison life.

06:04You know the small cell thing?

06:06He's not sharing a cell.

06:07That's another thing that might be slightly unrealistic.

06:09He does like to share a cell.

06:11But that's fine.

06:14That's, again, the existence he has at home as well.

06:16One room, he has some ones.

06:18As long as he's got a few books to read.

06:20And he can listen to a wee bit of music.

06:22Well, he's quite out and about.

06:24It's quite interesting how he adapts so well.

06:27But then that is, you know, he's always worked.

06:30Well, he's always been in institutions.

06:32Yeah.

06:33I mean, he was in the army for a while,

06:34which is an institution where you follow orders.

06:36Then he was in the police for a long time, where you're supposed to follow orders.

06:39He didn't always do it.

06:40And now he's in a prison where everything is regulated.

06:43And Sally and Peter get very used to that.

06:47In fact, they find it really hard to come out and readjust to the outside world.

06:52And he's used to cots.

06:53Yeah.

06:54Yeah.

06:55He's got stories to me.

06:56He talks to the guards because they are all interested in him having been a cot.

07:00And he talks to the prisoners, you know, he talks to them.

07:04He doesn't always ask them what he does.

07:08Because that could lead to trouble.

07:09Yeah.

07:10He kind of does.

07:11Did you wish you could have been in prison before?

07:14Never came up.

07:15No.

07:16There was never an opportunity for it to happen.

07:19He's always wriggled out of things.

07:22And also, I just thought, it's a bit challenging.

07:25It's such an enclosed environment, such a claustrophobic environment.

07:28Can you do a whole dose set in prison?

07:31And at first, it was going to be a whole dose set in prison.

07:33And then I thought, well, if there's a murder in the prison,

07:36the police will come in from the outside to investigate.

07:38So now we're with them.

07:39As they go back out.

07:41And then another story came up in my head to, you know, the online world.

07:47And I just thought, well, okay,

07:49so it's something for my detectives to do on the outside.

07:52Yes.

07:53And there's that kind of interaction because, you know,

07:55they need information from Revis or he needs information from the police.

07:58So, yeah, whether I could have said the whole book in jail,

08:04I'm not absolutely sure.

08:06Because all you can't do, right, you're just in four walls.

08:09Yeah.

08:10There's a lot of stuff you can't do.

08:12And it's very hard for Revis to get information.

08:14Yeah.

08:15From my phones or whatever.

08:16All the phones.

08:17It's hard.

08:18So you've got the outside part of the wall.

08:20And my last question for you, just saying, will you write next?

08:24Oh, sure.

08:25We'll write next.

08:26I don't know.

08:27I'm absolutely not.

08:28I don't know.

08:29I think we've had the TV series.

08:30Yeah, last time.

08:31Yeah.

08:32I know.

08:33Well, I had the TV series.

08:34And I know we're running around and trying to see if we can get the money

08:37for season two.

08:38And what?

08:39The play.

08:40I was heavily involved in households for that.

08:43And I went to every night of it.

08:45So I was there five nights in the truck.

08:48And now it's off to Aberdeen.

08:50I can relax a little bit.

08:51This book is about to come out.

08:53So I'll be on the promotion trail of that, touring the UK.

08:57It's been a busy year.

08:59That's much more than I would normally do.

09:01So next year is mostly a year of not writing.

09:04My wife said next year is another travel year.

09:07Still been travelling.

09:09But I've got a couple of things I might do.

09:11They're not big things.

09:12They're not big new projects.

09:14I'm trying to hold off on the big ones for a bit.

09:16Okay.

09:17This is the last book of a deal I had.

09:20And my wife said don't sign another contract.

09:23Did she?

09:24Will it be what?

09:25Cubibus?

09:26I don't know.

09:29So it's not the last one?

09:31Well, I think it's quite a good ending.

09:33Yeah, it is.

09:34I think if that was the end of the series,

09:35I'd be quite happy with that as an ending.

09:37I don't know.

09:38I can't off the top of my head.

09:39I don't know.

09:40I don't know what to do with them.

09:42Maybe in six months' time another great idea will come to me

09:45and I'll just have to write the book.

09:47Okay.

09:48He'll tell me.

09:49He'll tell me.

09:50Okay.

09:51He's got more stories like this.

09:52He will, won't he?

09:53And we'll see if it's the end.

09:54I had to ask you that question.

09:55I thought it was a good deal.

09:57Okay.

09:58If you want to read more of my writing,

10:00it's at www.scholastreet.com.

10:03And this interview will be on there and also inside the magazine.

10:08Okay.

10:09Thanks.

10:10Bye-bye.

10:11Bye-bye.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended