Iain Banks
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Iain Menzies Banks writes mainstream novels as Iain Banks and science fiction as Iain M. Banks. He was born on February 16, 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland; the son of an officer in the Admiralty and a mother who was once a professional ice skater. Banks studied English and Philosophy at the University of Stirling. Married in 1992, he lives currently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge. His next book will be a mainstream one and is due for publication in September 2006.
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Politics
As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable.
In late 2004 Banks was a prominent member of a group of left-leaning British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street.
Miscellany
Banks tends to write 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.
Since the release of his last book, The Algebraist (2004), Banks has stated in public that he intends to write more Culture novels, though he intends to slow his release of books from one every 12 months to one every 18 months, meaning the next culture novel will come no sooner than 2007.
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 has himself been the subject of South Bank Show television programme. He was the subject of a play, The Curse Of Iain Banks, written by Maxton Walker, at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999, appearing as a voice on tape. He has appeared on the BBC TV's Question Time.
While a student at Stirling University, Banks appeared as an extra in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which was filmed at the nearby Doune Castle. He was an extra in the final battle scene.
Bibliography
Mainstream novels
His mainstream novels are:
- The Wasp Factory (1984)
- Walking on Glass (1985)
- The Bridge (1986)
- Espedair Street (1987) – adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (dir. Dave Batchelor)
- Canal Dreams (1989)
- The Crow Road (1992) – adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (dir. Gavin Millar)
- Complicity (1993) – filmed in 2000 (dir. Gavin Millar), retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release
- Whit (1995)
- A Song of Stone (1997)
- The Business (1999)
- Dead Air (2002)
Science fiction novels
Much of his science fiction deals with a large pan-galactic civilisation, the Culture, which he develops in intricate detail:
- Consider Phlebas (1987)
- The Player of Games (1988)
- Use of Weapons (1990)
- Excession (1996)
- Inversions (1998) (makes covert references to the protagonists being Culture citizens)
- Look to Windward (2000)
His other, non-Culture, science fiction novels are:
Short fiction
Banks does not write much short fiction but has published one collection:
It contains both science fiction and mainstream writing. The title novella deals with the Culture, as do two other stories.
Nonfiction
- Raw Spirit (2003) (a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries)
External links
- Official site (http://www.iainbanks.net/)
- Internet Movie Database entry (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0052169/)
- The Banksoniain (http://banksoniain.netfirms.com) - Fanzine
- The Culture Data Repository (http://www.culturelist.org/cdr/)
- http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?IainBanks
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