Talk:Robert Rankin

Unsourced and original research items
This page contains SEVERAL items which violate the Original Research policy. Specifically, the nutshell version is "Articles may not contain any unpublished arguments, ideas, data, or theories; or any unpublished analysis or synthesis of published arguments, ideas, data, or theories that serves to advance a position."

The section listing the recurring characters and running gags is only verifiable by reading 2 or more books and drawing the conclusion yourself. If this is going to meet Wikipedia quality standards for original research, we need to have citations, even from a "companion" book or a fan site, or just remove it all together.Slavlin 22:09, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
 * It would be a shame to lose that section. I've added a few citations (off everything2.com) - that site seems to be wiki-like, in that users can register and add articles, but it doesn't appear to be a Wikipedia mirror, or get its information from Wikipedia.  It's a start, and hopefully other contributors to this article can find more. Carre 16:37, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Can the Unsourced/Original Research banner be removed now? It seems the objectionable sections have been removed and all other citations have been provided? Or otherwise can someone indicate which areas still need improvement? Illitrate (talk) 10:30, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

High Rankin'
An anonymous user added this: Robert Rankin has 3 sons, one of which being the widely appreciated 'high rankin', a drum and bass dj and producer from brighton who heads up the record label 'molten vinyl recordings'  ...but no reference, so I have removed it. The only reference I can find to this person is. Can anyone verify that this is, indeed, RR's son? Stephenb (Talk) 14:28, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

yes i can! it was me......... his son, easy steff easy james hope all is good! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.56.38 (talk • contribs)


 * I'm afraid your simple declaration isn't enough for Wikipedia! We need external proof. Please don't vandalise the article again. Stephenb (Talk) 09:53, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Woah, there's no need to be so harsh - can I say assume good faith? I asked the question on Sproutlore's forum, so hopefully someone from there will be able to confirm or deny it. Ironfrost 12:05, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I wasn't trying to be harsh - but the edit also unnecessarily removed content other users had added. Stephenb (Talk) 13:32, 25 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I am a personal friend of Robert's, and appeared in one of his books alongside a character partly based on his son Will AKA William Rankin AKA DJ High Rankin.

Here is a web page showing one of Will's releases on Molten Vinyl records, on which you can see him refered to as Will and DJ High Rankin http://nfodb.com/get_60187_High.Rankin-Red.Alert-PROMO-VLS-2005_wav_free_download_top_midi.html

Here is his myspace page, on which you can see various people refer to him as Will: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=31947335

And here is an article showing that Robert's son William provided the music for the full cast audio version of Robert's book "The Antipope"

http://www.thealienonline.net/ao_060.asp?baa=1&tid=2&scid=19&iid=2483

Evidence enough? Timmeh666


 * Seems reasonable (though the "personal friend" thing doesn't win any prizes :-) ) - I shall add the sentence Robert Rankin's son William, otherwise known as "High Rankin'", is a drum and bass DJ and producer from Brighton who heads up the record label 'Molten Vinyl Records'. Stephenb (Talk) 09:06, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Will is definitely the son of Robert, have worked with him on the m'nuh magazine, 'The Thing Is...' that I edit (when I'm not busily downing tequila slammers) and know this to be the case. Al Allday, The Thing Is, www.thethingis.co.uk.

Might be worth noting that Will has had releases on Jungletek movement ('somethin worth dyin' for on TTI001 was later released as sin city on vinyl by jungletek, see dswat.net), dissident's label, and was talking pretty seriously to breakbeat kaos (dnb label) last time i spoke to him. hope it works out.

Various guises
Removed the line "In more recent times, these have been replaced with photographs of Rankin in various guises such as Anton Lavey (see top of this article." from the running gags section. The picture in question, despite any passing resemblance, is not of Rankin in the guise of Anton LaVey, but of the attire he wore to conduct a Pagan wedding (handfasting). Also I can find no other evidence of the described phenomena, other than perhaps an old Bio picture paying homage to a similar photo of Aleister Crowley, but his was not a replacement for a fictitious biography. Timmeh666 12:08, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

It was a reference to the more recent Gollancz published books - they seem to lack the fictional biog stuff from what i have seen, but obviously i was mistaken. There was i think a picture of Rankin with a drill in gangster type attire as well, so maybe there is room for a brief mention of his photo after all if someone wants to add one. Big in albania 16:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Ah sorry, I misinterpreted the statement. I confess to being a little irritated at the implication that Robert was dressed as Anton LaVey (whom I despise) to conduct my wedding... but I see what you where driving at now. Also there are several fictitious and fictionalised biographies of Robert around, so I thought you were referring to them rather than to the author bios on the flyleaves(leafs?) of the books.

Since the phenomena was not unknown before the recent books (the Crowley pic for instance), how about...


 * Obviously fictitious biographical details about the author himself, though these seem to be absent from more recent novels.
 * Author pictures in various poses/modes of attire e.g. Aleister Crowley, gangster, Pagan priest (as in this article's accompanying picture)

Timmeh666 10:37, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

sounds good Big in albania 17:46, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Cover artwork
Does anyone feel like including a section about the scultures on the cover art of his books? I feel it may be worthy of a section in it's own right if someone knows enough about them to write something decent. Big in albania 16:18, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I'll have a think about this; I might be able to come up with something. Timmeh666 17:34, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Rune as Moriarty? No!
I would dispute that Rune is an evil Moriarty-like character; he is certainly based on the life of Aleister Crowley and, in fact, while clearly being higly disreputable gentleman of loose morals, is generally a force for good. Anyone any further thoughts? Timmeh666 11:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

it was the best way i could think of of summing him up very briefly. Feel free to rewrite as necessary, but i hope the running gags / recurring characters sction can be kept as brief as possible for each item. Unless you want to write a new article for Rune instead?! Big in albania 01:04, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

How about:

A somewhat nefarious, but generally well-meaning, self-styled "Guru's Guru", who's character and appearance is largely extrapolated from that of Aleister Crowley. His works and activities are often referred to or quoted in plots where he doesn't appear as a character.

I think Rune could have an article of his own, but I wouldn't have a clue as to how to go about writing one that wouldn't involve lifting substantial sections of Dave Baker's excellent "Robert Rankin: A-Z of characters" which of course would be frowned upon. Timmeh666 11:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Recurring characters
I have removed Neville from the recurring characters list on the grounds that all the Brentford trilogy characters, Neville included, were moved to that article's page some time ago. Big in albania 11:58, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Then should Jim and John not also be moved? and the Penge gag etc. etc.? I would argue that the removal of Jim and John wold make this article incomplete, and thus, as an integral part of the Rankin mythos, and as a character who appears in more novels than just the Brentford books, Neville should also remain here? Timmeh666 23:27, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

No, because the purpose of leaving Jim and John there is to link to the brentford article where the other characters are listed and for no other reason. I think Neville belongs on the brentford page, not this one. Big in albania 09:17, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

But there are already links to the Brentford Trilogy articles from the Bibliography section and, IIRC, Neville's appearances are not solely confined to that trilogy. Timmeh666 11:43, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Neville, plus all the other brentford characters, were originally listed in the recurring characters section until i moved them to that series article for the simple reason that the section was just becoming too long! Be honest, is Neville really THAT important that you think he deserves to be mention both here and the brentford article? There are a few other characters that, though recurring, aren't hugely important and can probably be gotten rid of. I would be very cautious of over-expanding this sections lest it qualify as fancruft.

I have editing this section for length as it was simply too long. It is only meant to provide an overview of characters and running gags, not explain there every appearence and list them with full biographical details! In my own opinion, the section is now essentially finished and further additions will be to the detriment of the article unless anyone feels we need to split it to a seperate article? Please discuss... Big in albania 11:49, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Surely Neville deserves a mention on the main Rankin page, even if only briefly with Jim and John, he is not exclusively a trilogy charachter after all? Basement12 15:06, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

I feel Jim, John & Neville all deserve a mention, tho as part of the split article (for running gags, for he is in a few) and as part of a list of characters (certainly for the Brentford Trilogy, albeit as a non-central character, though he is briefly treated as one for part of Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls?). Suggest the running gags gets its own article (please). MonstaPro 13:00, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The Antipope
I've started an article on The Antipope - it's currently in my user space (User:Carre/The Antipope), but I'll move it into main space eventually. In the meantime, if anyone wants to contribute or comment on it, please feel free. Carre 13:33, 22 November 2006 (UTC)
 * The article is now in main space, not user space; hopefully, the wikilink off the main article will work.  Still a bit to do on it - plot details would be nice, for a start!  Carre 15:07, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

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i mert robert rankin with my dad
i met him with my dad at brighton 185.73.184.68 (talk) 10:34, 16 September 2023 (UTC)