IT IS approaching the 30th anniversary of the first appearance in print of Detective John Rebus, and author Ian Rankin yesterday announced details of the first ‘Rebusfest’ in Edinburgh that will mark the occasion.
Hosted by Rankin and publishers Orion, Rebusfest will take place on the weekend of June 30 to July 2 celebrating 21 novels featuring Rebus who has been played on TV by Ken Stott and John Hannah.
Real detectives will feature and the Edinburgh international book and film festivals will be involved. The Edinburgh City of Literature Trust will also be taking part.
Rankin said: “We’re going to have at least one retired cop and one serving cop, and hopefully at least forensic expert as well. I’ll be talking to them about real policing and how it changed since 1987.“When I was researching the first Rebus book I wrote to the chief constable and he sent me down to Leith Police Station.“A lot of the conversation will be about changes to Police Scotland, whether Rebus would approve, whether officers approve and how difficult it is as a crime writer to take it all on board.”
There will also be whisky tasting and tours of Rebus locations.
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