In 1983 Rush initiated a literary debate in The Scottish Review: Arts and Environment by suggesting that the up-and-coming generation of Scottish poets drew less on their native places than their elders.
[2] A Twelvemonth and a Day served as inspiration for the film Venus Peter, released in 1989.
The story was also reworked by Rush in a simplified version in 1992 as a children's picture book, Venus Peter Saves the Whale, illustrated by Mairi Hedderwick, which won the Friends of the Earth 1993 Earthworm Award for the book published that year that would most help children to enjoy and care for the Earth.
His 2007 book Will recounts the life of William Shakespeare in the first person, and has been optioned for a movie by Ben Kingsley.
Rush also wrote a memoir of himself called Sex, Lies and Shakespeare, published by Beautiful Books Limited in 2009 (UK).