Remembering Scottish writer Iain Banks

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Famous for his unique writing skills, and an ability to move smoothly from reality to science fiction, Iain Banks has now stepped beyond the limits of science fiction and crossed over to eternity.

Aged just 59 and one the world’s most well-known authors, Scottish-born Banks died of cancer on June 9 2013, less than two weeks before the publication of his final novel, which is being seen as a kind of a personal requiem.

Last April, Banks revealed that he had been diagnosed with late-stage cancer of the gall bladder. In his last novel, titled ‘The Quarry’ due to be released on June 20 in UK and on June 25 in the US, the prolific writer describes the final weeks of a middle-age man fighting against cancer.

Banks’ sense of humour and his gently mocking writing style earned him a special place in world literary history.

His novels that became readers’ favorites included ‘The Wasp Factory’ (1984), ‘The Crow Road’ (1992) and ‘Feersum Endjinn’ (1994), which was voted one of the top 100 novels of the 20th century.

Who was Banks

Born on February 161954, he wrote mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, using the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies.

He began to write full-time after the publication and success of ‘The Wasp Factory ‘. Before that he had worked as an analyst for IBM, as a technician for British Steel and as a costing clerk for a London firm of lawyers.

He had more than 20 novels published with several books being adapted for the theatre, radio and television. In 2008, The Times included Banks in their list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’.

He met his first wife, Annie in London, before his first novel was published in early 1980s. They married in Hawaii in 1992. In early 2007, they announced their separation.

For the six last years, Banks had lived with Adele Hartley. They were married on March 29 2013 after the author asked her to “become his widow”.

After his death, Banks’s publisher called the author “an irreplaceable part of the literary world”.

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