ONE is the king of tartan noir whose gritty fictional detective’s battle against Edinburgh’s criminals has gained an international fan base.
And the other is a 19th century literary giant, born in the city and whose works have stood the test of time.
Now award-winning Inspector Rebus author Ian Rankin has admitted he has Robert Louis Stevenson and his famous work, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, to thank for his own best-selling career.
Read more: Tread lightly: Campaign launched to help visitors enjoy a greener holiday
In a new book published this weekend in which well-known names share their affection for Robert Louis Stevenson, Rankin tells how the gothic horror book’s themes of good versus evil inspired him to produce his first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses.
It also sparked the title of his second book, Hide and Seek, which offered a clue to the novel’s inspiration.
And he confessed: “I doubt I would be a crime writer were it not for Robert Louis Stevenson.”
Rankin, who has penned two dozen Rebus novels and a string of other works, said the RLS classic inspired his fictional detective’s complex character after he was struck by its exploration of good and evil and “why we human beings choose to do terrible things sometimes.”
He added: “This moral conundrum is at the heart of all crime fiction, and I decided that I would write a crime novel set in contemporary Edinburgh, which would allow me to explore the city while also updating some of the ideas in Stevenson’s book.
“In that first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, it is Rebus’s alter ego or onetime blood brother who turns out to have been the Hyde figure.
“Not that readers or reviewers noticed my intention.
“Frustrated by this, I wrote a second Rebus novel, again using Jekyll and Hyde as my template, and this time I even played with the name Hyde in titling the book Hide and Seek.”
Read more: Swan takes flight as pub rises from ashes to lift village fortunes
Rankin added: “I keep returning to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Within its pages lie the roots of Inspector Rebus and my own literary career.”
Rankin’s acknowledgement of the debt he owes to Stevenson appears in Fortunate Voyager, a collection of 60 pieces by people from all walks of life who have been inspired by the life and writings of ‘RLS’.
In it, former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney, tells of his fondness for his favourite RLS novel.
He recalled: “When I was a young boy in Liverpool my Auntie Dilys gave me a copy of Treasure Island which I very much enjoyed reading.
“Robert Louis Stevenson’s style and sense of adventure transported me to the land of Long John Silver, Ben Gunn and ‘Jim Lad’.
“It was a great escape from the dark and dreary British winter and I remember it with fondness to this day.”
Children’s writer Sir Michael Morpurgo, author of more than 130 books and the West End hit War Horse, reveals Treasure Island was the first book he ever read and has remained unequalled ever since.
He said: ‘It was because of Stevenson and Treasure Island that I first picked up a pen and thought I could write.
“Robert Louis Stevenson wasn’t just a fine storyteller, he was one of our greatest writers, and, to my mind, Treasure Island is the most masterly of all his masterpieces.”
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on this day (SAT) in 1850 to a family known for its engineering expertise: his grandfather, Robert Stevenson, oversaw the construction of many Scottish lighthouses, including the famous Bell Rock Lighthouse.
Three of Robert’s sons, Alan, David and Thomas – RLS’s father – also became lighthouse engineers, as did several cousins.
But while Thomas harboured hopes his son would follow the family’s path, the young RLS preferred writing.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in 1886, said to have been inspired by Edinburgh thief, Deacon Brodie. A respectable cabinet-maker, deacon of a trades guild and Edinburgh councillor by day, by night he became a housebreaker, stealing partly to fund his gambling.
Fortunate Voyager has been published as part of the annual celebrations to mark the author’s birth, and includes contributions from fellow Scottish writers, Val McDermid, Kevin MacNeil and Lin Anderson.
In it, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also recalls how as a student she was captivated by Stevenson’s writing as she read Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
She remembers reading the final page of a memoir by a fellow politician, US Senator John McCain, who died in 2018: “It was a moving piece of prose, in which he reflected on the end of his ‘happy life lived in imperfect service to a country made of ideals’,” she says.
“One thing which struck me was that the lines chosen by McCain as an epilogue to his memoir were from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Requiem: ‘Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill’.
“It was an unexpected but very poignant reminder that the work of Robert Louis Stevenson still – more than 100 years after his death – holds a place in the hearts of millions of people around the world.”
Jeremy Hodges, co-ordinator of the annual RLS Day celebrations, said: “We have been amazed and humbled by the wide variety of people today who continue to be inspired by Stevenson and who readily agreed to contribute to our book.”
The RLS celebrations coincide with news that a prized possession from his lighthouse-building family has been gifted to Museum and Galleries Edinburgh.
The family bible of lighthouse dynasty founder Robert Stevenson, the author’s grandfather, came from an anonymous donor.
Mr Hodges said: “Despite the international fame of RLS as an author, he always felt slightly guilty about not following in his father’s footsteps as a builder of lighthouses – a proper job of more importance than making stories.
“The family Bible would have been treasured by the devout Robert Stevenson and his descendants, including Robert Louis – despite his announcement in his early twenties that he no longer believed in the Christian religion, a confession that led to traumatic rows with his God-fearing parents.”
Full details of RLS Day events are online at rlsday.wordpress.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel