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Big Fish Theatre Company Limited
The best TIE issue based theatre company around
This has to be one of my all time favourite authors. I stumbled upon him - quite literally - by chance. I met Ian in the lounge of the overnight train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, in the days when the English MPs with Scottish constituancies would hold their constituancy surgeries on Friday mornings. He was sat with his back to a group of MPs (some of whom, if I remember rightly, were cabinet members) who were talking shop rather loudly at the next table. I saw a man who reminded me of Alan Hansen, listening, fascinated. I grinned at him and whispered, asking if he was a hack. He shook is head and smiled, and mouthed back "novelist". A short time after, the noisy MP's went to their couchettes.
I'm afraid I can be one of those annoying people who strike up conversations with strangers on trains. Some people hate it but it is one of my favourite pastimes. Nothing beats a really profound conversation with a total stranger; I find it is another window out onto the world. For me, this was one of those great conversations. I suppose it was made much simpler by the fact that I had never heard of Ian and that he was an open, warm, friendly, frank individual. I asked if he had had anything published and the modest soul that he was, he simply nodded that he had and left it pretty much at that, saying that it was crime fiction. We had a chat about crime writing and the effects on readers and writers alike. Looking back, I dread to think how often the poor man must have had to go through that type of conversation with an interviewer. But eventually we got on to swapping childhood stories and other experiences and he kept me entertained till about 3am. I can remember as we shook hands and bid each other good night that I promised him I would try and find his book and read it; thinking that it might make him happy to know someone would make the effort.
The next morning, as I walked from the station to my first rehearsal of Grid Iron's "Monumental", I passed three bookshops. Ian Rankin was the writer of the month in all of them. Entire shop window displays dedicated to the already hugely popular Inspector Rebus series. As you can imagine, I felt an utter prat. However, I think it speaks volumes for a man who, being so successful a storyteller and wordsmith, will still take time out to tell stories to a daft biddy like myself.
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