The Quarry: an extract from Iain Banks's final novel
In this scene from the late novelist's book, the protagonist, a man living with terminal cancer, looks on the bright side of death"Right then," he says. He sits back in his seat and folds his arms. I...
View ArticleIain Banks: the final interview
Iain Banks died last Sunday, just before the publication of his final novel The Quarry. Last month he talked to Stuart Kelly about writing, politics and all the things still left to do . . ."You know,...
View ArticleThe Quarry by Iain Banks – review
Iain Banks's death from cancer makes his final novel all the more poignantThe Quarry is a novel about disease, about "fucking cancer", as it's repeatedly described. It's a novel held up against the...
View ArticleIain Banks was unaware he had cancer before writing The Quarry, says widow
Adele Hartley responds to inaccuracies circulating about the late author's final bookIain Banks's widow Adele Hartley has spoken out to correct assumptions that the late author chose to write his final...
View ArticleEdinburgh international book festival announces 2013 lineup
Life and work of Iain Banks to be honoured at 30th festival, with Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman also featuring in two-week event partnered by the GuardianThe life and works of the...
View ArticleBooks review roundup: The Quarry, Modernity Britain: Opening the Box...
What the critics thought of The Quarry by Iain Banks, Modernity Britain: Opening the Box 1957-1959 by David Kynaston and Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield"That, in the end, is Iain Banks's gift to us...
View ArticleThe Quarry: Iain Banks – digested read
John Crace reduces Iain Banks's last novel, about a boy coming to terms with his dying father, to a more manageable 600 wordsMost things fit into some sort of spectrum. Mine stretches from "highly...
View ArticleFive science fiction novels for people who hate SF
The genre's denser stories can seem rebarbative to 'general readers', but these books tell immediately relevant, compelling talesScience fiction is all around us, from clandestine electronic...
View ArticleAsteroid named after Scottish author Iain Banks
Massachusetts scientist Dr Galache successfully applies for asteroid name change after meeting author at book signingFans of the late Scottish author, Iain Banks, now only have to look towards the...
View ArticleGuardian Books podcast: Edinburgh International Book Festival preview
As the curtain rises on the 30th edition of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, we talk to its director Nick Barley about how he has put together a 16-day marathon involving 800 events. He...
View ArticleMaddAddam by Margaret Atwood – review
With its Pigoons and ChickieNobs, does the conclusion of Margaret Atwood's SF trilogy show her at her best?The late Iain Banks complained a few years back about "literary" authors doing what their...
View ArticleWhen favourite authors become an addiction
Some writers are so addictive I find myself tracking down every word they've penned. But which authors do you crave?It's that desperation to have the gleaming hardback, despite the £20 price tag, that...
View ArticleMission impossible: How to turn the Wasp Factory into an opera
Iain Banks's complex debut novel is a brave choice for an opera. Ahead of its Royal Opera House premiere, librettist David Pountney reveals the challenges of adapting it for the stageWhen composer Ben...
View ArticleThe Wasp Factory – review
Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House, LondonThis adaptation of Iain Banks's novel is highly original and visually arresting, but let down by the vocal musicFrank, the teenage psychopathic killer at the...
View ArticleThe best fiction of 2013
There were mighty tomes from Donna Tartt and Eleanor Catton, pastiches for lovers of Bond and Wodehouse, and a final novel from Iain Banks. We look back at the year's big hitters• The best science...
View ArticleIain Banks remembered by Michelle Hodgson
Michelle Hodgson, once Iain Banks's press officer, recalls the warm friendship she shared with the author for nearly 25 years• See the Observer's obituaries of 2013 in full hereIain Banks didn't laugh...
View ArticleBest portraits of 2013 – in pictures
From artists to activists and politicians to personalities, a selection of the best portraits taken by Guardian photographers this yearMee-Lai StoneParis LeesChristopher ThomondDavid LeveneLinda...
View ArticleIn their own words: literary giants who died this year
Chinua Achebe, Iain Banks, Seamus Heaney, Elmore Leonard and Doris Lessing in quotesChinua Achebe, 82 On history: "There is that great proverb… that until the lions have their own historians, the...
View ArticleIain Banks: a death foretold? - books podcast
John Crace's satirical Digested read columns have become a Guardian institution, reducing the most newsworthy books of the year to an essential 600 words.Here, he takes on Iain Banks's final novel, The...
View ArticleThe 10 best fictional musicians – in pictures
The most convincing popular music combos on screen and in printDorian Lynskey
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