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Chapters (30)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for Ian Rankin
  3. About the Author
  4. By Ian Rankin
  5. Ian Rankin
  6. To Allan and Euan,who set the ball rolling.
  7. Introduction
  8. 1
  9. 2
  10. 3
  11. 4
  12. 5
  13. 6
  14. 7
  15. 8
  16. 9
  17. 10
  18. 11
  19. 12
  20. 13
  21. 14
  22. Philip Kerr, ‘The Unnatural History Museum’
  23. Afterword
  24. © Rankin
  25. ABOUT IAN RANKIN
  26. Introduction to DI John Rebus
  27. For general discussionregarding the Rebus series
  28. THE FALLS
  29. Discussion points for The Falls
  30. Copyright
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Bleeding Hearts – paperback – ebook
Blood Hunt – paperback – ebook
Short Stories
A Good Hanging and Other Stories – paperback – ebook
Beggars Banquet – paperback – ebook
Non-Fiction
Rebus’s Scotland – paperback

Ian Rankin

The Falls

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To Allan and Euan,
who set the ball rolling.

Not my accent – I didn’t lose that so much as wipe it off my shoe, as soon as I started to live in England – but rather my own temperament, the prototypically Scottish part of my character that was chippy, aggressive, mean, morbid and, despite my best endeavours, persistently deist. I was, and always would be, a lousy escapee from the unnatural history museum …

Philip Kerr, ‘The Unnatural History Museum’

Introduction

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Whenever I’m on tour, I’m always on the lookout for local music and bands I haven’t heard of. On my first trip to New Zealand, I was sitting watching TV in my Auckland hotel room and liked the snippets of music I heard on an advert for the latest album by the Mutton Birds. I didn’t know the Mutton Birds, but they seemed to be popular in New Zealand. At tour’s end, I found myself with an hour to kill at the airport and some spare currency. I bought the album at a CD booth, and listened to it back in Edinburgh. There are plenty of great songs on Rain, Steam and Speed, but one – ‘The Falls’ – really got to me. It was slow and haunting and mythic. The lyrics were all about invention: how we invent the world by means of our insatiable curiosity. I loved the song’s refrain – ‘There must be a story behind all that …’

There must be a story.

I was still recovering from jet lag when the French TV crew hit town. They were in Edinburgh to make a documentary about the Scottish parliament, and wanted to talk to a few of the doubters. I never did find out how they got my name, but it’s true that I was sceptical about the costings, the site chosen for the building, and the need for another layer of bureaucracy. (I’m more sanguine these days.) I’d agreed to meet them at the recently opened Museum of Scotland on Chambers Street. There was a spot on the lower ground floor that would provide the perfect backdrop to our conversation. As we walked into the building, a member of staff sauntered over. He’d recognised me, and had something he wanted to say.

‘You should take a look at the little dolls, Mr Rankin.’