Rankin begins a new chapter for library as display unveiled

crime writer Ian Rankin is to revisit the library that helped launch his career when he attends the preview of an exhibition at Edinburgh University.

Among the highlights in the display will be artefacts associated with the Fife-born novelist, who studied English Language and 
Literature at the institution from 1978 to 1985.

A thesis proposal handwritten by the Rebus creator is one of the highlights of a summer exhibition that will mark 250 years of English Literature study at the university.

Also included in the display will be a matriculation card belonging to the award-winning author, and a first edition of his first novel, The Flood, published in 1986.

Rankin was a regular visitor to the university’s main library in George Square as a postgraduate student when he wrote his first novel.

The exhibition – called City of Words: Writers, Readers and Critics in Edinburgh – runs in the library from August 3 to 
October 27.

Other exhibits include previously unseen letters by distinguished writers, including Robert Burns, Robert Graves, D H Lawrence and Arnold Bennett.