Rankin a hands-down winner

Published on Saturday 16 February 2008 10:15

CRIME author Ian Rankin is to get his hands on City Chambers on Monday.

The writer's handprints have been carved in a block of Caithness stone by Morningside stonemason Nicholas Boyes, which has been laid in the quadrangle.

Rankin won the inaugural Edinburgh Award last year, and each year's winner is to be paid an identical tribute. The handprints will be unveiled on Monday, when nominations for the 2008 award are officially opened.

The author said: "It is a thrill, as the first recipient of the Edinburgh Award, to have my handprints preserved for posterity on the flagstones outside the City Chambers.

"Having written for years about the travails of 'the cooncil', it is only proper and fitting that those same councillors now get to walk all over me for a change!"

Lord Provost George Grubb said the engraved handprints would serve as a lasting tribute to one of Edinburgh's "most celebrated and best loved authors".

He added: "I look forward immensely to seeing them joined in a year's time by those of the next Edinburgh Award winner."