Rankin sparks Twitter row over £20 taxi

The Rebus author used the micro-blogging website to complain he had been left out of pocket by an artist who failed to meet him for an appointment.

However, yesterday he admitted that his Tweets had angered the painter's parents - who had sent him cash to cover his costs and a rude note to complain about the matter being made public.

Rankin had been left waiting for 20 minutes on Edinburgh's Calton Hill last week after he agreed to meet the artist so she could take his photograph and use it as the basis for a portrait.

However, when she did not show up, he wrote on Twitter: "I'm off. Gorgeous here today and I'd stay if I could, but a ton of other stuff today."

He later added: "Taxi home, just twenty quid out of pocket. Ten quid there, ten quid back."

In a series of posts on the site yesterday, Rankin revealed: "Just got 20 note in the post from parents of artist I failed to meet up with on Tuesday. Along with a fairly abusive letter."

The note said the artist was no longer interested in painting his portrait.