The crime writer on chocolate, fictional sex and missing his son
Born in Fife, Ian Rankin, 60, published his first Rebus bestseller in 1987.
His award-winning books have been translated into 36 languages and adapted for radio, stage and screen. A Song For The Dark Times, the latest in the Rebus series, was published on 1 October. Rankin is married with two sons and lives in Edinburgh.What is your greatest fear?
The first blank page of a new project.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My constant need for approbation.
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Self-centredness.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
The bumpy moles on my face.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Biting off a fingernail and then using it as a toothpick.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
In my teens, an accountant. In my 20s, either a rock star or a novelist.
What is the worst thing anyone’s said to you?
“You’ve probably got it in you to write a serious novel, you know.” (A literary novelist at a book festival in The Hague.)
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
It used to be obscene amounts of chocolate. While writing a book, I could eat five Snickers a day.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
I’d give myself some fashion sense.
What is your most treasured possession?
A copy of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie signed to me by its author, Muriel Spark.
To whom would you most like to say sorry, and why?
There wasn’t a lot of bullying at my school, but there was a fair amount of ragging – and I knew which side I wanted to be on. I’d say sorry to anyone who felt picked on.
What would your superpower be?
Invisibility – very useful for a novelist. We are, after all, professional voyeurs.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My wife, Miranda. After her, probably the Rolling Stones.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
“Like” as a pause-filler. Whenever I listen to an interview I’ve done, I think, how can you be so inarticulate?
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
Paris in the 1920s: artists and writers and explosions of new ideas.
How often do you have sex?
All the time. But then, as a fiction writer, I have a very vivid imagination.
What has been your closest brush with the law?
While researching my first novel, I became a suspect (for a short time) in a real-life case that had similarities to the story I was writing.
How would you like to be remembered?
Fondly and down the centuries. I think partly what drives writers to write is the yearning for immortality.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Never stop trying.
Where would you most like to be right now?
On the sofa next to the younger of my two sons. He has special needs and has been isolating since early March. No visits; no cuddles.