34 Facts About Iain Banks

Iain Banks was a Scottish author, writing mainstream fiction as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M Banks, adding the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies.

Iain Banks's books have been adapted for theatre, radio, and television.

Iain Banks was born in Dunfermline, Fife, to a mother who was a professional ice skater and a father who was an officer in the Admiralty.

Iain Banks completed a first novel, The Hungarian Lift-Jet, at 16 and a second, TTR in his first year at Stirling University in 1972.

Iain Banks's first published novel The Wasp Factory, appeared in 1984, when he was thirty.

Iain Banks's first published science fiction book, Consider Phlebas, emerged in 1987 and as the first of several in the acclaimed Culture series.

Iain Banks's parents had meant to name him "Iain Menzies Banks", but his father mistakenly registered him as "Iain Banks".

Banks's editor inquired about the possibility of omitting the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy" and the potential existed for confusion with Rosie M Banks, a romantic novelist in the Jeeves novels by P G Wodehouse; Banks agreed to the omission.

Iain Banks wrote in various categories, but enjoyed science fiction most.

In September 2012 Iain Banks became a Guest of Honour at the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, Loncon 3.

Banks was the subject of The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks South Bank Show, a TV documentary that examined his mainstream writing, and was an in-studio guest for the final episode of Marc Riley's Rocket Science radio show, broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music.

In 2011 Iain Banks featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme Saturday Live.

Iain Banks reaffirmed his atheism in this appearance, explaining death as an important "part of the totality of life" that should be treated realistically instead of feared.

Iain Banks appeared on the BBC television programme Question Time, a show that features political discussion.

Iain Banks won a 2006 edition of BBC One's Celebrity Mastermind; the author selected "Malt whisky and the distilleries of Scotland" as his specialist subject.

Banks was involved in the stage production The Curse of Iain Banks, written by Maxton Walker and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 1999.

Iain Banks collaborated frequently with its soundtrack composer Gary Lloyd, for instance on a song collection they co-composed as a tribute to the fictional band Frozen Gold from Iain Banks's novel Espedair Street.

Lloyd scored for a spoken word and music production of his novel The Bridge, which Iain Banks himself voiced and which featured a cast of 40 musicians, released on CD by Codex Records in 1996.

Lloyd recorded Iain Banks for including in the play as a disembodied voice of himself in one of the cast member's dreams.

When he [Iain Banks] first played them to me, I think he was worried that they might not be up to scratch.

Iain Banks was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society Scotland.

In November 2012, Iain Banks backed the campaign group emerging from the Radical Independence Conference held in that month.

In late 2004, Iain Banks joined a group of UK politicians and media figures campaigning to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In 2010, Iain Banks called for a cultural and educational boycott of Israel after the Gaza flotilla raid incident.

Iain Banks met his first wife Annie in London before the 1984 release of his first book.

Iain Banks returned to Edinburgh and dated another woman for two years.

In 1998 Iain Banks was in a near-fatal accident when his car rolled off the road.

In February 2007, Iain Banks sold his extensive car collection, including a 3.2-litre Porsche Boxster, a Porsche 911 Turbo, a 3.8-litre Jaguar Mark II, a 5-litre BMW M5 and a daily-use diesel Land Rover Defender, whose power he had boosted by about 50 per cent.

The title was his creation and on 3 October 2012 Iain Banks accepted a T-shirt inscribed with it.

From 2007 Iain Banks lived in North Queensferry on the north side of the Firth of Forth, with his girlfriend Adele Hartley, an author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival.

On 3 April 2013, Iain Banks announced on his website and on one set up by him and some friends that he had been diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year.

Iain Banks stated he would be withdrawing from all public engagements and that The Quarry would be his last novel.

Iain Banks's publisher called him "an irreplaceable part of the literary world".

Iain Banks wrote thirteen SF novels, nine of which were part of the Culture series, and a short story collection called The State of the Art, which includes some stories set in the same universe.