Ian Rankin tells all

Well, not really, but he does cop to some things that wouldn’t normally come up in one of those boilerplate interviews you’re used to seeing, answering questions about whether he sings in the shower, his favorite dessert, and his memories of his first date:

I think it was a bit of a nightmare. My parents were going to a Conservative Association Dinner Dance and I invited a girl from school. My sister’s boyfriend was supposed to collect her in his car, but instead turned up in his greasy old works van. Her introduction to a night out with Ian Rankin was to be picked up in a greasy truck then taken to a Conservative dinner dance – not a great start to any relationship.

Oh dear. That would indeed be a rather inauspicious start…