About this artwork

The renowned crime writer Ian Rankin was born in 1960 in the village of Cardenden, Fife. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and, whilst working towards a PhD on modern Scottish fiction, began writing his own books. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987. The Rebus books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have won Rankin numerous awards and international acclaim. For this portrait, the artist Guy Kinder depicted Rankin in Edinburgh’s Oxford Bar – a favourite haunt of both the author and his fictional character, Inspector Rebus.

Updated 2021

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Guy Kinder

Guy Kinder