Rankin, Ian

The Scottish crime writer Ian James Rankin was born in the coal mining town of Cardenden, Fife, where his father owned a grocery store. His mother worked in a school canteen. There were few books at home, and Rankin began to visit his local library as a child and began to write short stories as a teenager. He attended Denend Primary School in Cardendan and later Auchterderran Junior High at Auchterderran followed by Beath High School in Cowdenbeath, graduating in 1978, the same year he enrolled at the University of Edinburgh. He read literature, much against the will of his parents who would have preferred that he went into business or trained as an accountant. He became the lead singer of the punk band the Dancing Pigs in 1979. They broke up after six months without having made a single record. His interest in rock music is prominent in his books.