In this episode of The Writing Life podcast, former NCW CEO Chris Gribble spoke to bestselling crime writer Ian Rankin about his new standalone short thriller The Rise.

Ian Rankin was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960 and graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. He is the internationally bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox novels, as well as a string of standalone thrillers. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers on several continents.

Together, they discuss Ian’s much-loved series character Inspector Rebus and his return to the page in a new phase of life, in Ian’s new Amazon Original Story The Rise. Ian shares the challenges he experienced while writing the short story and considers how writers always find a way to tell the stories they need to tell. They chat about Ian’s thoughts on the upcoming TV adaptation Rebus, and the differences between novel writing and screenwriting.

Edited by Omni Mix

Ian Rankin was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960 and graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982. He is the internationally bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox novels, as well as a string of standalone thrillers. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Rankin is the recipient of four CWA Dagger Awards and in 2004 won America’s celebrated Edgar Award for Resurrection Men. He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won the British Book Award for Crime & Thriller Book of the Year in 2022, Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and Germany’s Deutscher Krimipreis. Rankin is the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Hull and Edinburgh, and has received the knighthood for services to literature.