Ian Rankin & Inspector Rebus (24 page)

Production Co-ordinator
Margaret McDonald,
Assistant Co-ordinator
Brian Fraser,
Production Accountants
Bernadette Tervit and Denise Taylor,
Production Runner
Joanna Matthews,
Script Supervisor
Margaret Graham,
Script Editor
Denise
Paul,
Unit Managers
David Hancock and Robbie Kirkpatrick,
2nd Assistant Director
Michael Queen,
3rd Assistant Director
Alison Wallace,
Floor Runner
Andy Gardiner,
Stand-in
Stephen Carney,
Costume Supervisor
Kathryn Tart,
Wardrobe Manager
Anna Robbins,
Costume Assistant
Alison Johnston,
Costume Trainee
Camille Moohan,
Make-up Artists
Mairi Morrison and Anita Anderson,
Art Director
Mags Horspool,
Prop Buyer
Sue Morrison,
Standby Art Director
Alan Ballany,
Graphic Artist
Frances Connell,
Art Department Runner
Claire Fleming,
Petty Cash Buyer
Rebecca Armstrong,
Action Vehicle Arranger
Lee Farrell,
Prop Master
Piero Jamieson,
Dressing Props
Stewart Cunningham, David Wetherstone and Roddy Garden,
Standby Props
John Knight and Iain Gower,
Costume Manager
Ross Balfour,
Construction Department
Paul Curren, James Haley and Martin Fallon,
Standby Rigger/Carpenters
John Rhymer and Richard Hassall,
Unit Drivers
Jas Brown, Euan Milne, Robert Burns and Stephen Harrop,
Police Advisor
Willie Manson,
Armourer
Mark Shelley,
Steadicam Operator
Roger Tooley,
Focus Puller
Julia Robinson,
Grip
Iain Johnstone,
Clapper Loader
Peter Keith,
Camera Trainee
Steven Cook,
Gaffer Electrician
Steve Costello,
Best Boy
Grant McLean,
Electricians
Arthur Donnelly, Callum Milne, Paul Bates and Euan Epton,
Sound Maintenance Engineer
Alastair Mason,
2nd Unit Camera Operator
Ossie McLean,
2nd Unit Focus Puller
John Harper,
Publicist
Lisa Vanoli and Tracey Whitton,
Stills Photographer
Graeme Hunter,
Prop Production Supervisor
Lynn Morrison,
Assistant Film Editor
Laura Gorman,
Colourist
Kevin Horsewood,
Dubbing
Mixer
Cy Jack,
Dubbing Editor
Amanda McGoldrick and Lorraine Keiller,
Foley Artist
Donald MacLeod,
Casting Director
Kathleen Crawford,
Production Sound Mixer
Stuart Bruce,
1st Assistant Director
David Gilchrist,
Location Manager
Michael Higson,
Costume Designer
Gill Horn,
Make-up Designer
Ann McEwan,
Production Manager
Michael Wilson,
Composer
Simon Rogers,
Film Editor
John Gow,
Production Designer
Andy Harris,
Director of Photography
Alasdair Walker,
Executive Producer
Eric Coulter,
Screenplay
David Kane,
Producer
Alan J Wands,
Director
Martyn Friend.

If you were not familiar with the original novel then this would be entertaining television, but for those who are, it’s another frustrating ride. There is no real reason why the original story had to be pulled around as
much as this one was. OK, the idea that Rebus could have committed the murders is here – which was a possible outcome to the original novel – but this was really hallowed ground for true Rebus fans.

The actors took their parts well.

DI John Rebus
Ken Stott,
DS Siobhan Clarke
Claire Price,
DCS Gill Templer
Jennifer Black,
Bobby Robertson
Graeme Rooney,
Margaret Robertson
Therese Bradley,
Peter Carr
Sam Heughan,
Barbara Carr
Lindy Whiteford,
Susan Carr
Jessica Graham,
Brian Robertson
Brian McCardie,
Davis Haigh
Nicholas Farrell,
QC
Charles Willis Jeffrey,
High Court Judge
Iain Agnew,
Daniel Carr
Nick Rhys,
Dave Johnson
Chris Young,
Dave MacFarlane
Garry Sweeney,
Clive Dawson
Kevin McMonagle,
DS Trish Fuller
Susan Vidler,
Xan Zee Barman
Peter Milne,
Drug Squad Inspector
Russell Watters.

Production Co-ordinator
Margaret McDonald,
Assistant Co-ordinator
Brian Fraser,
Production Accountants
Bernadette Tervit and Denise Taylor,
Production Runner
Joanna Matthews,
Script Supervisor
Margaret Graham,
Script Editor
Mike Ellen,
Unit Managers
Christopher Cameron and Robbie Kirkpatrick,
2nd Assistant Director
Michael Queen,
3rd Assistant Director
Alison Wallace,
Floor Runner
Andy Gardiner,
Stand-in
Stephen Carney,
Costume Supervisor
Kathryn Tart,
Wardrobe Managers
Anna Robbins and Alison Johnston,
Costume Assistant
Camille Moohan,
Costume Trainee
Ruth Webster,
Make-up Artists
Mairi Morrison and Anita Anderson,
Art Director
Mags Horspool,
Prop Buyer
Sue Morrison,
Standby Art Director
Alan Ballany,
Graphic Artist
Frances Connell,
Art Department Runner
Claire Fleming,
Petty Cash Buyer
Rebecca Armstrong,
Action Vehicle Arranger
Lee Farrell,
Prop Master
Piero Jamieson,
Dressing Props
Stewart Cunningham, David Wetherstone and Roddy Garden,
Standby Props
John Knight and Iain Gower,
Costume Manager
Ross Balfour,
Construction Department
Jane Harvie, James Haley and Martin Fullon,
Standby Rigger/Carpenters
John Rhymer and Richard Hassall,
Unit Drivers
Jas Brown, Euan Milne, Robert
Burns and Stephen Harrop,
Police Advisor
Willie Manson,
Fight Arranger
David Goddall,
Armourer
Mark Shelley,
Steadicam Operator
Tony Jackson,
Focus Puller
Julia Robinson,
Grip
Iain Johnstone and Stuart Bunting,
Clapper Loader
Peter Keith,
Camera Trainee
Steven Cook and Angus Cameron Thomson,
Gaffer Electrician
Paul Bates and Steve Costello,
Best Boy
Grant McLean,
Electricians
Arthur Donnelly,
Callum Milne and Euan Epton,
Sound Maintenance Engineer
Simon Thomlinson,
Additional Camera Operator
Julie Bills,
Additional Focus Puller
Anna Benbow,
Publicist
Lisa Vanoli and Tracey Whitton,
Stills Photographer
Graeme Hunter,
Prop Production Supervisor
Lynn Morrison,
Assistant Film Editor
Alex Gow,
Colourist
Kevin Horsewood,
Dubbing Mixer
Cy Jack,
Dubbing Editor
Amanda McGoldrick and Lorraine
Keiller,
Foley Artist
Michael MacKinnon,
Casting Director
Kathleen Crawford,
Production Sound Mixer
Stuart Bruce,
1st Assistant Director
David Gilchrist,
Location Manager
Michael Higson,
Costume Designer
Gill Horn,
Make-up Designer
Ann McEwan,
Production Manager
Michael Wilson,
Composer
Simon Rogers,
Film Editor
John Gow,
Production Designer
Andy Harris,
Director of Photography
Alasdair Walker,
Executive Producer
Eric Coulter,
Producer
Alan J Wands,
Written and Directed
Roger Gartland.

The length of each episode was cut down by half for the Stott episodes, severely affecting the loyalty to the books. Some episodes were completely unrecognisable, while others had a ghost of the original novel. The acting was good and the location filming pretty good too.
However, as time passed, the stories became more and more original, which was wrong.

W
hat follows is one of the most comprehensive and accurate collector’s guide ever published concerning the UK first editions and their variants of Ian Rankin’s work. Many of the items listed here have been studied in preparation of this guide and questions asked of Ian Rankin and his publishers as to their provenance. I would like to thank Ian and Orion for
their support over the past five years, especially their time, patience and trust, which has enabled me to obtain such obscure information.

Also, Ian has been very keen to give his fans/collectors as much up-to-date information as possible with regard to the various versions of his books available. I have also spoken to him at length about very obscure issue points during our interviews in London
and in Edinburgh and I would like to thank him again for his time and trouble, especially when I talked about different colour endpapers and prices on dustwrappers. He surely must have thought me mad on several occasions but managed to put up with my strange questions nonetheless!

At the 2009 Edinburgh Book Festival (specifically 19 August), Rankin was asked if there was a bibliography of his
works that fans could use for reference. This became further inspiration – if inspiration were needed! – for the following detailed Annex concerning his UK published works and, as an extra treat, we begin with a short interview with him about his interest in collecting books and the collectability of his own work.
⁷⁵

‘It’s probably something I did for a charity. How much do they want for it?’

‘They’ve got to be mad, or the person who buys it is! I’ll do them one for £100! Seriously, dealers bring their stuff along to my signings, or rather they get their mums to do it. It happened the other night.

‘Nowadays anyone can be a dealer, what with AbeBooks and Ebay.
Anyone can do it.’

‘I know the early books sell for a lot of money. I remember seeing a copy of
The Flood
in an auction. It had a very high price on it and it was only the paperback version. There were 800 copies printed of the paperback, compared to only three or four hundred hardbacks, so I was
astonished… I’ve got some unopened copies in their original mailing box.

‘Orion called for my early works to be re-issued. First I allowed
Watchman
because I took a look through it and thought, Yes, this holds up.’

‘My publisher was keen to publish and got me drunk one night at dinner. That’s probably why I said I’d think about it. I didn’t like that fans/completists couldn’t get access to the book, and that dealers were profiting wildly from a few fans with deep pockets. I also thought it might complement
Rebus’s Scotland
, sections of which refer to my childhood in Cardenden. If I’m ever hard up, expect me to change my mind on
Westwind
, too… Also I agreed to
Watchman
and
The Flood
because of the readers, not the collectors. There were people out there who just wanted to read the books and had to pay silly money to get at the early ones. I told them they’re not as good, but they told me that they
didn’t care: I had written them and they wanted to read them, so that’s where it really made more sense to me to release them.’

‘It was my attempt at a big conspiracy-theory story, set partly in the USA (a country I had never visited at that time) and with lots of humour. Unfortunately, my editor of the time didn’t like it, and had me make masses of changes – taking
out the humour and the US setting, for example – by the end of which I felt the book had ceased to be mine. There’s a cheesy photo of me on the back, looking about 16, taken when I worked on a London hi-fi magazine. I don’t think I could bear to read the novel now.

‘That’s the problem with collecting: it’s not about quality, it’s about quantity. A book could be a masterpiece and sell millions
and be worth 20p on the collector’s market but a load of rubbish that hardly sells and there’s about five copies in existence will sell for hundreds!’

‘Yes, the early books are worth a fortune nowadays. Not so much the later books because the print-runs are high, but the proof copies still reach big prices. I was talking to a dealer once
at a book signing in Edinburgh, and he had bought 40 copies of
Resurrection Men
, which he wanted me to sign. I asked him what he was doing with them, and he told me that he had punters for them all over the world.’

‘No, why should it? He was a customer and he bought a shopping trolley full of my books.
So what? It keeps him in a living!’

‘I’m a collector myself. I’ve collected a lot of first edition hardbacks signed by the writers. And if you ask me why I did it, I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea. What difference does it make if you have a signature in a book of somebody you’ve never met?’

‘Exactly!
I’ve got some early Ian McEwan, Martin Amis, Anthony Burgess, George MacBeth. Some of those writers are dead now. And I tell you something else: when I sign a book, I never dedicate it, because it’s always worth more undedicated on the collector’s market. People don’t want dedicated copies [Note: Rankin has changed his position on this for his later books,
Set in Darkness
onwards, especially as
people request personal dedications at book signing sessions.]