Iain Banks

Message to cancer:

F&*K YOU CANCER.

Iain Banks has not got long, he announced today.

I read The Wasp Factory in my early 20s after it was recommended to me by a friend. I was sitting on the top deck of the bus on my way home from college one night and I reached a part of the story where I felt I actually had to put the book down, mouth open and eyes agog, so powerful and disturbing was one particular image within the text. I picked it up again the next day and finished it. Amazing book.

When I lived in central Edinburgh, I often used to Mr Banks out and about, usually in a music shop.

Another cruelty inflicted by a shit of a disease on a talented individual. I only hope he is able to do whatever he needs to in the time he has left.