Described as the "King of Tartan Noir" by American crime writer James Ellroy, UK's number 1 bestselling crime writer Ian Rankin will be featured at Park Street Mews on Tuesday February 2 at 7.00 pm. The event presented by the British Council in partnership with Park Street Mews promises to be the biggest literary event to hit Colombo's literary calendar.

Ian Rankin, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, is an award-winning Scottish Crime writer. His well-known series of Inspector Rebus novels are best-sellers on several continents. The series, which started with Knots and Crosses (1987), has been hugely successful, accounting for 10% of all crime book sales in the UK. The books now routinely sell half a million copies within the first three months of printing, and have been translated into 36 languages.

His standard biography states that before becoming a full-time novelist he worked as grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, college secretary and punk musician; he was also a Literature tutor at the University of Edinburgh where he retains an involvement with the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Ian Rankin has also broken Irvine Welsh and Iain Banks' records, with six titles in the Scottish top 10 bestsellers list simultaneously.

This event forms part of the British Council's Animating Literature 'Book Buzz' series which was initiated with the objective of offering its audiences the opportunity to experience some of the best contemporary writing to emerge from both UK and Sri Lanka.