Focus Scotland: the Year of Rebus
For the Scottish pub trade, 2007 is set to be the Year of Rebus.
Twenty years ago Ian Rankin's first crime novel to feature the 'not very good' Detective Inspector John Rebus hit the bookshelves. It was Rankin's intention to kill off the character at the end of that first novel, Knots & Crosses, but leaving him merely unconscious on the ground in the Edinburgh catacombs in the final pages left the door ajar for a sequel - should the reading public approve.
Which they undoubtedly did. Rankin has now completed his 17th Rebus novel, The Naming of the Dead, set amid the G8 protests of summer 2005 - although the state of health of our ageing protagonist, who was never an especially well man, has some fans worried about how much longer he can keep going.
As well as the detective himself, there is another hero in these books - the pubs of Scotland's capital city. Rankin's twisted plotlines are frequently teased out with the help of lubrication from glasses of beer and large measures of scotch, so it seems only right that the 20th anniversary of Rebus should be celebrated with particular relish by two Scots liquor producers - Caledonian Brewery and Highland Park Distillery, which got together with the author on Burns Night to introduce the year's activities.
Caley is particularly enthused by Rankin's support for Deuchars IPA, which he first drank at Rebus's real-life local the Oxford Bar, still an unpretentious boozer in the Edinburgh backstreets despite being made famous by the novels.
Deuchars will be promoted in pubs this year as 'Rebus's Favourite' and a million special edition beer mats carry Rankin's full tribute to the beer.
A brew called Rebus 20 will be available as a seasonal cask ale in August in time for the Edinburgh Book Festival. The 4.4 per cent amber beer was chosen from four contenders by Rankin and will contain a mystery ingredient for detectives of drink to spot.
No angle has been missed on the pump-clip.
Pub-goers are invited to 'murder a pint' of the beer 'found behind bars'.
"I think that asking for 'a pint of Rebus's' trips off the tongue," said a rather pleased author. "I often use beermats myself to write notes on, an idea or a joke, although they don't always work when I get back to the word processor."
In addition, a commemorative single malt from Orkney distiller Highland Park will be called Rebus 20. Again, it was chosen by Rankin, a member of the Scotch Whisky Society, from a choice of 12 samples, each from a single cask.
It is being bottled this month at cask strength 52 per cent ABV in a limited edition of about 200 bottles, numbered and signed by the author.
"They will be as unique as you get and should command a high price at charity auctions," commented Rankin.
In the unlikely event that John Rebus gets to taste it, his creator declared that "he would put a wee bit of water in it. But he doesn't believe in ice or drowning it."
