Ian Rankin at the Edinburgh Book Festival

Speaking to him before the event, he told me he has been invited to come to Russia, where he has never been before. I tried to encourage him to make the visit.

Asked why he wrote so much about music in his books, he told the capacity audience that "like all crime writers, I am a frustrated rock star".

Incidentally, I was told not to take this photograph by the attendants in the tent as it was "a copyright event". Does anyone know what that means? I ignored it, but was curious about this potential new invasion of the tradition liberty to photograph anything you see which is intentionally public.