Iain Banks (edit name/settings)

Iain Banks (born on 16 February 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife) is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Banks studied English, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Stirling.

After attending the University of Stirling, Banks moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992.Banks currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth, with the published author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival Adèle Hartley.

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

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name 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 middle name, and it may be considered official by adoption. Following his three mainstream novels, his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M'.

Novels as Iain Banks
* The Wasp Factory (1984)
* Walking on Glass (1985)
* The Bridge (1986)
* Espedair Street (1987) – adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (directed by Dave Batchelor).
* Canal Dreams (1989)
* The Crow Road (1992) – adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (directed by Gavin Millar).
* Complicity (1993) – filmed in 2000 (directed by Gavin Millar), retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release.
* Whit (1995)
* A Song of Stone (1997)
* The Business (1999)
* Dead Air (2002)
* The Steep Approach to Garbadale (2007)
* Transition (2009) - published in the US as Iain M. Banks

Fiction as Iain M. Banks
Novels
The Culture novels
* Consider Phlebas (1987)
* The Player of Games (1988)
* Use of Weapons (1990)
* Excession (1996)
* Inversions (1998)
* Look to Windward (2000)
* Matter (2008)
* Surface Detail (2010)

Other novels
* Against a Dark Background (1993)
* Feersum Endjinn (1994)
* The Algebraist (2004)

Short fiction collections
* The State of the Art

The fiction includes three short works set in the Culture universe. It also includes works of fiction more characteristic of Banks' writing published as Iain M. Banks.

Non-fiction
* Raw Spirit (2003) (a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries)

Introductions
Banks has written a number of introductions for works by other writers including:

* Viriconium (1988) by M. John Harrison, the Unwin edition, ISBN 0-04-440245-7.
* The Adventures of Luther Arkwright: Book 3, Götterdämmerung (1989) by Bryan Talbot from Proutt Publishing, ISBN 0-907865-03-8.
* The Orbit Science Fiction Yearbook Three (1990) edited by David S. Garnett, ISBN 0-07-088833-7.
* The Human Front (2001) by Ken MacLeod, the PS Publishing edition, ISBN 1-902880-30-7 (hbk) and ISBN 1-902880-31-5 (pbk).

Contributions
Banks has contributed to a number of publications, including:

* New Writing Scotland (1983) ISBN 0-9502629-4-3. A poem of Banks's called 041. The title comes from the old subscriber trunk dialling code for Glasgow.
* The Edinburgh Pub Guide (1989) edited by James Bethell, Polygon Press, ISBN 0-7486-6053-4. A review of The Green Tree.
* The Culture #4 (2001) contained the words from the photo story Forbidden Love that Banks wrote for Viz, but which they would not publish without a cut that he would not agree to. It was written (and photographed) at the 1989 Eastercon.
* Critical Wave #26 (1992). After the death of Isaac Asimov, the fanzine contained appreciations of him by many SF authors including Banks.
* New Scientist #1865, pp38–9 (1993) has an article by Banks called Escape from the Laws of Physics about the science (or lack of it) in science fiction. Banks has also had a number of letters published in the magazine, for example, one on creationism in November 2005 <10>.
* The Observer (7 February 1999). A review of the Tower Restaurant on the top floor at the Museum of Scotland in the Life magazine section.
* A Sense of Belonging to Scotland (2002), edited by Andy Hall, The Mercat Press, ISBN 1-84183-036-4. Banks contributed a few paragraphs to this book about the "favourite places of Scottish celebrities". His chosen place was the Forth Rail Bridge.
* The Guardian (2 November 2002). A review of the M. John Harrison novel Light headlined Into the 10th Dimension.
* Novacon 36 Programme Book (2006). A fictional remembrance of Ken MacLeod (the guest of honour for the convention).

He was 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.

Quotes
* "I write because I love it, I enjoy it, I've spent most of my life trying to do it better, and I can make a living from it: beats a day job."
* "The Universe says simply, but with every possible complication, 'Existence' and it neither pressures us nor draws us out, except as we allow. It all boils down to nothing, and where we have the means and will to fix our reference within that flux, then there we are. Let me be part of that outrageous chaos… and I am."
* "In all the human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and in every state, there has seldom if ever been a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots." (Use of Weapons)
* (CNN: Would you like to live in the Culture?)

IMB: "Good grief yes, heck, yeah, oh it's my secular heaven … Yes, I would, absolutely … I haven't done a study and taken lots of replies across a cross-section of humanity to find out what would be their personal utopia. It's mine, I thought of it, and I'm going home with it – absolutely, it's great."

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Banks