Biography
Iain Banks sprang to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984.
Since then he has gained enormous and popular critical acclaim with further works of both fiction and science fiction, all of which are available in either Abacus or Orbit paperbacks.
In 1993 he was acknowledged as one of the Best of Young British Writers. in 1996 his number one bestseller, The Crow Road, was adapted for television. His latest fiction novel, Dead Air, was published in 2002, with his latest science fiction novel, The Algebraist, following in 2004.
The Times has acclaimed Iain Banks 'the most imaginative British novelist of his generation'. He lives in Fife, Scotland.
'For any lover of a good story well told, a new book by Iain Banks is always a treat. Imagination, wit and complexity are his hallmarks' Sunday Express
'Devilishly inventive and inventively devilish' Sunday Times
'Eng Lit for the age of www' Independent on Sunday
'Banks is a phenomenon ' William Gibson
Miscellaneous
Banks tends to produce a novel in around three months, working solidly, then take nine months off. In his leisure time, he has had flying lessons and records his own rock music.
Banks tends to alternate writing between science fiction and literary fiction novels.
Many of his science fiction books are based in the universe of 'The Culture' (a powerful, multi-species civilization living in our galaxy). The novella, The State of the Art records the Culture coming into contact with planet Earth.
Following the release of his most recent science-fiction work, The Algebraist in 2004 (a non-Culture novel), Banks has stated that he intends to write more Culture novels. However, as he intends to slow the release of such books from one every 12 months to one every 18 months, the next Culture novel cannot be expected until sometime in 2008.
Although Banks generally confines his writing to his own novels, he has written occasional reviews for The Guardian newspaper and is a semi-regular music reviewer for Marc Riley's Rocket Science radio show on BBC 6 Music. He was the subject of a South Bank Show television programme broadcast on 16 November 1997, subtitled The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks, which concentrated on his mainstream work. The Curse Of Iain Banks, a play written by Maxton Walker, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999, with Banks contributing as a voice on tape. He has appeared on the BBC's political discussion television programme Question Time.
While a student at Stirling University, Banks appeared as an extra in the final battle scene of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which was filmed at the nearby Doune Castle.
At the beginning of 2006 Banks captained a team of writers to victory in a special series of University Challenge: The Professionals on BBC2, beating a team of actors 185-105 (January 1), and then the 'news' team 190-45 in the final (January 2). He also won an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, taking "Malt whisky & the distilleries of Scotland" as his specialist subject on BBC1 on January 2.
Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Iain explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents named him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After agreeing to drop the 'M' his family were a bit upset but it wasn't possible to put the 'M' back for subsequent novels, as this could have confused the readers. After publishing his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. They agreed that it would be a good idea to distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, to avoid confusing his mainstream readership, so Iain suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskys: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.
Some External Links
Iain Banks Official Site
The Culture Data Repository
Iain Banks on Wikipedia
