Sir Ian James Rankin OBE DL FRSE FRSL FRIAS[2] (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

[3] Encouraged by his English teacher, he persisted and graduated in 1982 from the University of Edinburgh, where he also worked on a doctorate on Muriel Spark but did not complete it.

[6] Before becoming a full-time novelist, he worked as a grape picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician in a band called the Dancing Pigs.

He thought his first novels, Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek, were mainstream books, more in keeping with the Scottish traditions of Robert Louis Stevenson and even Muriel Spark.

[11] In 2009 Rankin stated on BBC Radio 5 Live that he would start work on a five- or six-issue run on the comic book Hellblazer, although he may turn the story into a stand-alone graphic novel instead.

[12][13][14] In 2013, Rankin co-wrote the play Dark Road with Mark Thomson, the artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre.

[21] Later that same year, he received a Knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature and charity as part of her Birthday Honours List.

In 2005 he presented a 30-minute documentary on BBC Four called Rankin on the Staircase, in which he investigated the relationship between real-life cases and crime fiction.

It was loosely based on the Michael Peterson murder case, as covered in Jean-Xavier Lestrade's documentary series Death on the Staircase.

[24] Rankin is the singer in the six-piece band Best Picture, formed by journalists Kenny Farquharson (The Times) and Euan McColl (The Scotsman) in 2017, and featuring Bobby Bluebell on guitar.

They lived for a number of years in the Merchiston/Morningside area,[28] near the authors J. K. Rowling, Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Atkinson,[29] before moving to a penthouse flat in the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary building in Quartermile in Lauriston.