Ian Rankin's archives to be opened up to the public this week

The National Library of Scotland has revealed that nearly 400 files of manuscripts, notes and letters kept by the best-selling writer will be available to inspect from Friday.

However followers of Rankin and Rebus will have to pre-book their visit to a “reading room” at its headquarters in Edinburgh.

More than 50 boxes of material donated by Rankin last year before he moved house have been painstakingly examined and catalogued by a dedicated curator before being made available to the public.

Highlights include early manuscripts for first Rebus novel Knots and Crosses, correspondence with leading literary figures like J K Rowling, Iain Banks, Ruth Rendell, Val McDermid and Jilly Cooper, letters from police officers who offered to help Rankin with his research, and his unfinished PhD on the author Muriel Spark.

The archive includes Rankin’s personal reflections on trying to make it as a successful crime writer, his hopes of being treated seriously by literary critics, his ambitions of making a full-time living from writing, and tribute to his most influential teacher at school in Fife.

It also includes material Rankin himself had little or no memory of writing, including short stories, plays and scripts for TV series.

Curator Rosemary Hall said: “There are a lot of unpublished short short stories, a TV serial that never came to anything and a stage play Ian had completely forgotten about because he has written so much over the years.

“I think the archive will attract a really wide range of readers and researchers. I’d imagine there will be people who will want to do a PhD on Ian’s work, but there will also be his fans, who love his writing and his relationship with Edinburgh.

"I think people will be really interested in the inner workings of his mind, how he writes the novels and how he comes up with the characters.”

The author, who is taking part in an online talk on the archive on Thursday, said: “The whole process has been one of excavation. There was a tonne of stuff that I couldn’t remember. But once a project is finished I forget about it and move onto the next one.

“I’ve never known how many Rebus novels I was going to write. Each book could potentially be the last book. That was certainly very true coming up to Exit Music (set just before Rebus retired).

"A lot of folk have said to me: ‘You must have known at the back of your mind that you were going to bring him back.’

"But there are bits and pieces in the archive with me saying to myself: ‘This is it, this is the end for Rebus. What are you going to do next?’ I had no conception of bringing him back at that point.”

“I would write notes as if I was having a conversation with myself. When I’m making notes towards starting a book there are all kinds of things going through my head. Every time you write a new book you learn from the one you did before.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.