Newsletter
July 2007Welcome to the summer newsletter. Sorry you haven’t heard from me in a while. When I look at blogs, I always marvel at how their authors keep them current. It’s almost as if they weren’t spending all their time browsing record shops, visiting pubs and watching trashy TV. Not that I haven’t been busy. In the first half of this year I’ve managed to tour the USA (for ‘The Naming of the Dead’), write a 100-page novella for serialisation in the New York Times (you can read it online, apparently), contribute some journalism for May’s Scottish elections… and pen the latest Inspector Rebus novel. As far as I know, we’re still keeping its final title under wraps and referring to it as ‘Rebus XX’. Some journalists, however, seem to think this is the actual title. It isn’t. More news to follow as to why we’re keeping it a secret. The novella was fun. It’s Ocean’s 11 in Edinburgh but with amateur thieves and an art gallery as the target. I kept seeing it as a movie, but now that Ocean’s 13 is out, film companies are looking at anything but heist stories. C’est la vie. Meantime, a modern-day reworking of ‘Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ is running on BBC1 right now, which gave BBC4 the chance to screen my documentary about the story behind that classic of psychological horror. Whether it’ll be seen anywhere else I can’t say. They never tell me these things. Oh, and how could I forget? I’ve also written an opera. Okay, so it’s only fifteen minutes long and I’m writing just the words, but it was still a challenge. Luckily, I’m working with maestro Craig Armstrong (Moulin Rouge, Romeo and Juliet, World Trade Centre…), so it’s proving to be fun as well as hard work. The finished article will be performed in Edinburgh and Glasgow some time next year, along with five other 15-minute operas, each by a different pairing of talents. Sounds like a good night at the theatre. Mine includes murder, infanticide, madness, scourging, infidelity and revenge. So it’s pretty much like any other opera I’ve seen… I’ve been having a ball with all the activities to celebrate Mr Rebus’s 20th anniversary. The trip to Orkney was memorable, though for some reason I’m having trouble remembering the actual whisky-tasting. I was in Orkney with my publisher to sample the wares at the Highland Park distillery and choose a single cask of malt to become Rebus’s chosen whisky of 2007. The selection is being bottled, and will be a real collectors’ item. We reckon we’ll get fewer than 150 bottles. It’ll never be sold on the open market, but will be available for charity auctions and website prizes. It tastes amazing, so I hope some of you get lucky… There’s also going to be a special limited-edition ‘Rebus’ version of the detective’s favourite beer, Deuchar’s IPA. It will feature a mystery ingredient (as chosen by the Master Brewer and myself) and be on sale throughout August. Again, for some strange reason I can’t remember too much of the sampling process, but Caledonian Brewery did lay on some excellent haggis… Right now, there’s a 20th anniversary exhibition running at Edinburgh’s Writers’ Museum. It is small and perfectly formed, and it’s quite an experience to be sharing space with Walter Scott, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson. Later in the year, the exhibition will expand and move to the National Library of Scotland, but it’s at the Writers’ Museum until September 30th - and free! ‘The Naming of the Dead’ comes out in paperback in July. The book has had amazing feedback, and won the British Book Award for Best Crime Novel earlier this year. That was phenomenal. (‘Fleshmarket Close’ won the same prize two years back, making it a double whammy.) Almost better, however, was that Pete Townshend of The Who got in touch to say he was so moved by the opening few pages, it took him a while before he could move on to chapter two. Hmm… that reminds me: I’ve written the lyrics to the closing song on the second St Jude’s Infirmary album, and they’re in the studio right now. I must try to get along to see what they’re doing with my words. Anyway, back to ‘Naming of the Dead’. Last time I saw Gordon Brown (during the election campaign, while I was pretending to be a journalist) he said he’d just started the book, therefore hadn’t got to the bit with him in it. Doubtless I’ll see him at a Raith Rovers game next season (still in the second division… missed promotion by a whisker); must ask him what he thought of it. The Edinburgh Book Festival programme has just been announced, so I’m not giving anything away by saying that I’ll be there a lot. On the evening of 14 August I am introducing a selection of Highland Park malts at a whisky tasting (to include the Rebus 20 Malt, hopefully). I better not sample the wares too briskly, however, because I’m interviewing Ruth Rendell the next day onstage at 11.30. Thursday 16th I’m doing a solo event, and on the 17th I’m appearing on a panel with Denise Mina to talk about graphic novels and comic books. (Denise has been writing ‘Hellblazer’ and I’m due to write some issues later in the year.) Friday 24th I’m interviewing Ian McEwan in the morning and doing another solo show in the evening… which is quite enough Book Festival for (and from) me. I don’t know if many of you caught ‘Reichenbach Falls’ on TV (BBC4) a few months back. It was written by a friend of mine, based on an original idea by me, and concerned an Edinburgh cop who begins to realise (with a little help from Arthur Conan Doyle) that he’s a character in a novel, and that his creator is about to get rid of him. It was a terrific piece of work, and stayed with me throughout the writing of the new Rebus. I’ve been calling it his ‘final’ book - but note those inverted commas. What I mean is, he hits sixty at the end of it, so has to retire from the police. Is there unfinished business? You bet, so don’t be surprised if he turns up again from time to time. And his TV future seems assured - I hear they’ve just finished shooting another four films starring Ken Stott. The last series was a big hit, and sold very well overseas (judging from the e-mails I’ve been getting). A lot of the locals find it funny that they’ve made Rebus a Hibs fan on TV, when I’ve been so careful in the books to keep him out of that whole debate. The thing is, Mr Stott is a passionate Hearts fan, and I just think the TV crew thought it would be amusing to have him support the opposition. I did attend a derby match last season as a guest of Hibernian FC, but that was because I’d won the inaugural Edinburgh Award, and Hibs chairman Rod Petrie thought it would be a nice gesture - which it was. While on tour in the US in April, I finally got to meet Aidan Moffat. We’d collaborated (by text, e-mail, jpeg and mp3) on a project called ‘Ballads of the Book’. This is an album which pairs Scottish writers with Scottish musicians. They put me with Aidan, which was immediately unnerving - he is revered as a lyricist (for his songs as one half of the mighty - and now defunct - Arab Strap). Anyway, I sat down one night and turned out a song called ‘The Sixth Stone’ (about Ian Stewart, fellow Fifer and one-time member of the Rolling Stones). Aidan provided a brilliantly catchy tune and that was that. The album was released in March… and there was a bit of a stink. The Stones’ ex-manager wasn’t happy about the regurgitation of rumours that he had ‘dumped’ Ian Stewart. The media, however, were fascinated by this forgotten figure from rock history. During various interviews that Aidan and I did, we were always in different cities or countries, connected only by studio headphones. But then New York happened - my tour coincided with the annual Tartan Week festivities, and Aidan flew over with his new band (The Best-Ofs). We were invited to do a show at a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan (the whole thing recorded for a podcast). It was the first time we’d met, and a really fun evening - even if the pair of us momentarily forgot the lyrics to the second verse! - which ended with me walking/weaving approximately sixty blocks home to my hotel… The rest of the year looks equally hectic. Rebus XX is published on 6 September, and I’ll be touring the UK and Ireland that month. October 17th I’ll be in Toronto to be interviewed onstage by Margaret Atwood (no less!) at a PEN benefit. November 8th I leave for a tour which will take in Dubai, Australia and New Zealand. And December 3 – 7 I’ll be on tour in Germany. Hope to see a few of you along the way… Ian |
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