Inspector Rebus span a broad spectrum of Scotland, including council estates, tenements, business districts, nightclubs, prisons, dying mining towns, secluded villages and desolate hillsides, as well as the better-known pubs and streets of Edinburgh. Some of these locations are fictional, although they may be based on real places. For example, the Pilmuir estate is a conflation of the two real Edinburgh locations Pilton and Muirhouse. Other locations, such as the Oxford Bar, Arden Street, and St Leonards police station, are real. Frequent references to real places, or local politics firmly ground the Rebus series in the real world. Another strong feature of
Edinburgh People's Festival South, East and West of the city. The People's Festival's award-winning exhibition was constructed by the inmates of HMP Edinburgh and tells the story of the organisation from its origins in 1951 to the present day and was the centrepiece of last years Radical Book Fair. The 2009 August programme included the Hamish Henderson Memorial lecture, the launch of a new book entitled 'What Robert Burns means to me' to celebrate the bards 250th anniversary, a walking tour of 'Radical Edinburgh', a concert 'Songs of the People' and a tour of Rebus' Edinburgh endorsed by Ian Rankin himself. Edinburgh People's