A fellow participant on an Edinburgh crime walking tour, where Rankin was invited as a guest, recognised him and began asking all sorts of book-related questions that puzzled him, over a post-tour pint. Eventually, he twigged. "You think I'm Iain Banks, don't you?"
(In conversation with fellow Keith Grammar School alumnus and lad o pairts Jim Naughtie, during the Dickens International Fellowship Conference, Aberdeen July 2016)