Iain Banks Posts

25 years ago, THE CROW ROAD first found its way into readers’ hands. From its bravura opening onwards, THE CROW ROAD is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary novel. ‘It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B […]

Iain Banks the literary novelist and Iain M. Banks the science-fiction writer are too well known to need introduction, but Iain Banks the poet has hitherto been almost undetected. A single poem, ‘041’, published in a poetry magazine; two poems (‘“Slight Mechanical Destruction”’ and ‘Zakalwe’s Song’) book-ending Use of Weapons; some lines from ‘Feu de […]

Starting at 3:33 pm on June 28th there will be a walk following Graham Park’s route from the Iain Banks book Walking on Glass. The date and time come from the book and the anniversary is on a Saturday this year. Gather from 3:15pm at the corner of Theobald’s Road (south side) and Southampton Row […]

Iain Banks’s last novel, The Quarry, is out now in paperback. The Quarry is the story of a dying man and his only son, six old friends, a missing videotape and a reunion in a crumbling house on the edge of a quarry. First published in hardback and ebook last year, here’s what critics had […]

The Wasp Factory has been voted one of the top 50 books that help shape and inspire teenage lives the most, in a public vote held to mark World Book Day today. Thousands of adults and teenagers in the UK voted in the ‘Writes of Passage’ initiative, intended to create the ultimate list of 50 […]

Our much loved and admired author, Iain Banks would have celebrated his 60th birthday today, Sunday 16th February. To mark the date, Little, Brown is delighted to announce that in February 2015, we will publish a collection of Iain and Ken Macleod’s poems, edited by Ken. Simon Pegg, a long-standing fan of Iain’s work, said […]

Iain Banks’ books account for two of the top ten books Scottish novels of the last 50 years as voted by the public. As part of Book Week Scotland 2013, The Scottish Books Trust conducted a poll to find the 10 Favourite Scottish Novels of the Last 50 Years. Members of the public were invited […]

In recent months, the astronomer José Luis Galache at the Minor Planet Center put forth a request that an asteroid be named after Iain M. Banks. Sadly, it was too late for Iain to hear of it, but on the 23rd of June this was approved by the International Astronomical Union. Asteroid Iainbanks now resides […]

Some of Iain Banks’ most avid readers have organised a commemorative walk in London on the 29th of June. Iain Banks’s second published novel, Walking on Glass, has three interlinked storylines. One of these has chapter names which are the roads in London that the character Graham Park walks in his journey from Theobald’s Road […]

If you would like to leave a personal message for Iain, please feel free to sign his guestbook for friends and family: http://friends.banksophilia.com/guestbook/

I am officially Very Poorly. After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems. I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this […]

David H, the editor of the Banksonian Fanzine, has been in touch to let us know the newest issue is available to download from efanzine.org. This edition looks back at 2012 but also forward into 2013 and beyond. He talks about the covers makeover on backlist reissues of Iain Banks’ (non M) titles and has […]