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Home , Complicity (novel), Espedair Street, Iain Banks, Meiert Avis, Raw Spirit, The Bridge (novel)

The Banksoniain #1 An Iain (M.) Banks Fanzine February 2004

Editorial Brief Introduction Welcome to the first edition of a new Iain If you are reading an fanzine (M) Banks fanzine. The Banksoniain then you should probably have heard of aims to cover the whole of his many and him, but just in case you haven't (or if you varied works, past, present and future. do but need reminding) here is a brief Issue #1, is somewhat of a introduction to the man and his works. Special, being Iain’s latest work we look at Iain Banks achieved instant notoriety in the evolution of the book, its publicity, 1984 with his first published novel, The reviews, radio abridgement, cover and Wasp Factory, which, being published by anything else we could find out. We also Macmillan, a respectable publisher, and look back twenty years to the original subsequently shocked some high minded publication of The Wasp Factory, and literary reviewers. Since then Iain has examine how from the original published another 19 books, working controversy it is now a set book in schools. through a wide variety of mainstream The rest is split into a number of sections genres, e.g. Family Saga/Whodunit (The that are planned to be regular columns, Crow Road); Polemical Thriller (Dead briefly explained here: ); and Rock Novel (), as Media Scanner – a review of the recent well as coming out of the closet as a Sci-Fi publicity that Iain has garnered. writer. Iain had wanted to be a writer for Banks Obscura – a delve into his minor as long as he could remember, and points works, and little known facts about Iain. to documentary evidence of this in the The Unwritten Banks – a look at the form of a drawing book from his Primary various adaptations of Iain’s works, on the 7 class that contains the results of an stage, radio, television and film. assignment he was given to draw what he Banks in Translation – an examination of wanted to be when he grew up. Struggling at the non English editions of Banks’s to draw ‘a writer’ Iain drew an actor and work. This issue has a Russian flavour. wrote “and writer” in the corner. Iain eBay Watch – a commentary of Banksian estimates that he wrote about a million items of interest that have recently sold on words over fourteen years before he was the Internet. published, and was not, therefore, the Not “THE” Iain Banks – a profile of a overnight success some people thought he different Iain Banks. This issue – Iain was. Three of these five novels have Banks archaeologist. subsequently seen the light of day as part

of his Sci-Fi output after being revised, but Contact Us: the two earliest: The Hungarian Lift-Jet If you have any comments or contributions and The Tashkent Rambler, Iain does not to make then please email us at: consider worthy of any attempt to rework. [email protected] We hope to have The Banksoniain will cover all this and a letter section in issue #2. So drop us a more, so, Welcome, as the 1997 South line letting us know what you want to read Bank Show profile of him put it: to the about, or any questions you may have. Strange Worlds of Iain Banks. You may win a prize.

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in attendance and was told “Iain was Media Scanner always a very happy wee boy.”

The First Minister of the Scottish The publication of Raw Spirit saw a burst Parliament, Jack McConnell, chose Dead of publicity, which is explicitly dealt with Air as his book of the year in a survey of on page #4, some other interesting snippets prominent Scots published in the Herald are summarised below. (29/11/03). It looks like the canny

There isn’t that much published critical politician had waited for the paperback appraisal of Iain’s work, so a welcome edition to be published before reading it. addition was the September 2003 In (01/12/03) Iain publication of a book from the Science explained to William Leith that to have a Fiction Foundation called The True fun life it should be “in a tactical sense Knowledge of Ken MacLeod (ISBN: interesting, but in a strategic sense 0903007037). Obviously geared towards boring”. He also admitted to having a the work of Iain’s old school-friend it really bad pun habit when younger. contains an essay about them both by Dr James Brown called “Not Losing the Plot: A short profile of Iain appeared in the first Ken MacLeod and Iain M. Banks”. (December 2003) issue of a new magazine Details from: called Ink, the “UK’s first lifestyle book http://www.sf-foundation.org/pubs.html title”, where he divulged that has a happy ending - although not at the A Sunday Times Magazine feature end and not for itself, for . (16/10/03) explained that he carries an A4 sheet that lists all his CDs in his wallet so Iain has made the long list for the 2004 that he does not accidentally buy the same International IMPAC Dublin Literary one twice. It is printed very small and Award. Nominations come from libraries organised both alphabetically and by in major cities throughout the world, with genre. It also revealed how he still thinks Dead Air one of the choices of the London libraries. The shortlist will be announced about the game Civilization III, 18 months rd after deleting it from his computer, and on March 23 2004. destroying the disk, in order to stop getting Iain has been nominated, this time up at 4am to play it. personally, in the 2004 Icons of Scotland

In an interview with Susan Mansfield in poll run by Scotland Magazine. In the The Scotsman (12/11/03) Iain admitted to writers section he is up against James getting scared on the extreme rides found Buchan, Janice Galloway, Michael Fry and in fairgrounds nowadays, preferring the Val McDermid. The Jan/Feb 2004 issue dodgems “where there’s a wee sliver of (#12) of the magazine also included an theoretical control”. interview conducted by Paul Schoonenberg in which Iain claims to have The Daily Record (13/11/03) an article been mistaken for both Irvine Welsh and about making money out of hiring your . home to filmmakers included an interview with the owner of a house used in Iain has been a long time member of the Complicity. Scotch Malt Whisky Society. However, according to the Sunday Herald Scotland on Sunday (16/11/03) related (08/02/04) he recently withdrew his the story of a student who did not believe membership in protest at the Society being the author of The Wasp Factory and taken over by the Whisky company Complicity had no dark secrets. Querying Glenmorangie and therefore having its Banks about his youth at a book launch he independence compromised. was sent to see Iain’s mother who was also

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which “Scotland's most famous export is Raw Spirit decanted into full- bodied, humorous prose”. The reviewer in Esquire entered Right at the beginning of 2003 a short into this debate, describing it as “an reference to a new book by Iain Banks engaging piece of work, part love letter, appeared in the Daily Telegraph part memoir”. One of the shortest, and (05/01/2003). In a preview of the also most apposite descriptions was publishing year, David Robson, included “whisky travelogue” from Graeme the rather cryptic entry “Iain Banks (Malt, Virtue’s Sunday Herald (28/12/03) November, Century), travelling around article. Iain's publishers, who should Scotland”. This caused Banks watchers probably have the last say, just call it plain some confusion: Century is owned by “Travel Writing” on their website.

Random House, Iain is contracted for his Iain has said that he regards the book as a fiction to Time Warner, and surely his next spoiler for potential biographers, and book was meant to be a Sci-Fi one. Early claims it is the closest that he will come to in the Summer, Amazon listed a new Iain ever writing an autobiography, and in parts Banks book called Raw Spirit with a it is a very personal work. In other parts publication date of November 6th, he uses it to try and set the record straight presumably Malt had just been a working about a variety of issues; from how the title. different names for his different types of

In August at his usual appearance at the book came about, to his continuing denial Book Festival (21/08/03) came that The Wasp Factory is any way at all final confirmation straight from the horse’s autobiographical. He also reveals snippets mouth, with Iain waxing lyrical about how of background information about his he came to write the book. From the offer, works of fiction – references for which are which was one of the few that his agent listed in the short index on p #5. Buy it if even bothered to put to him, to how the you want to find out about all those stories. initial idea that he would be driven around From Iain’s other comments there is little the Highlands in a black cab with a prospect of another non-fiction book as he garrulous Glaswegian taxi driver changed thinks there is no way he will find a into the reality of Iain travelling with subject that he will enjoy researching as friends to research the book. He also read much as whisky, although he has joked an extract from it about the rain in that he would happily cover the opening of Glenfinnan. the first space hotel, or possibly

So what is Raw Spirit? In whisky terms it condescend write “A year with a NEW is the product of the barley distillation Ferrari”. As some of the reviewers noted process that is put into casks to mature. (see p #5) whisky does not actually feature Only after three years in a cask can it that heavily in some sections. Iain’s legally be called whisky. In literary terms, perspective on this is that “whisky was the it is a non-fiction book by Iain Banks, but excuse” for the book and he did usually how to categorise it? The Amazon listing get back on the subject. says “Category(ies): Fiction, Food & The paperback edition of Raw Spirit is Drink, Travel & Holiday”, an interesting, currently planned for publication in if incorrect mix, Publishing News put the September 2004, and will give Iain a subject dryly as “Travel Writing, chance to correct a few of the errors that Alcoholic Beverages”. The Independent slipped into the hardback. “I’ve no idea on Sunday (23/11/03) included it in a where I got the idea that Crieff only had Christmas round up of ‘best books for one ‘f’” , he admitted to Graeme Virtue. cooks’, but then described it as a “beautifully realised fusion of travelogue, social commentary and drinking guide” in

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poster campaign that featured a version of Raw Spirit Publicity the cover photograph blurred to look as if Iain was driving past at great speed these There only seem to have been two public were used on the London Underground events to publicise Raw Spirit. A signing and at Scottish National Rail stations. If was held at the Borders on Buchanan you send in a letter or other contribution it Street in Glasgow (08/11/03), and a talk, is a Raw Spirit poster that you can win! tasting and signing that took place in All this promotional service that Iain has Edinburgh (10/11/03). This was reviewed done in bringing the joys of whisky to a in the next day’s Evening News that new audience saw him gain a nomination concluded “he had the audience eating, or in Whisky Magazine's Icons of Whisky perhaps drinking, out of his hand”. Poll for “Personality of the Year”. The

Iain also made a couple of radio last time that Banks mixed whisky and appearances, firstly on the BBC Radio 4 awards he won the Glenfiddich sponsored travel programme Excess Baggage 1999 Spirit of Scotland - Literature award.

(08/11/03) where Iain, host Sandi Toskvig and Welsh writer Byron Rogers discussed R4 - Book of the Week the guests’ recent books and “celticness”, and then on the BBC Radio Scotland book A month after its publication Raw Spirit programme Cover Stories (18/11/03). was the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week The latter was somewhat of a from 8th - 12th December. This saw the disappointment being a fairly short work abridged by Laurence Wareing into segment covering Iain tasting a few five 15-minute episodes that were whiskies in the cellar of the Whisky Shop produced by David Jackson Young and on the Royal Mile with Stewart Smith, read by Jimmy Chisholm. The recent coupled with two short extracts from the fashion on Book of the Week has been for book. Cover Stories is hosted by the ex the author of the chosen work to read it, Bishop of Edinburgh (Richard Holloway) and it was a little disappointing not to hear and there was a great potential for he and the excited tones of Iain read the book Iain to lock horns on the issue of religion. himself. The BBC publicity described the book as an “entertaining and opinionated There was also coverage in the printed account of a tour around the whisky press for the book. Even before its official distilleries of his native Scotland”. James publication according to the Mail on Rampton writing in The Independent Sunday (05/10/03) it was on the long list (06/12/03) picked the serialisation as one of ten books that judges will whittle down of his radio highlights for that coming to five before inviting people to vote in the week. travel category of the WH Smith People’s Choice Book Awards. Iain wrote in The Jimmy Chisholm is a Scottish actor, and Observer (09/11/03) about his favourite has therefore appeared in the soap Take the table at the Albert Hotel in North High Road, as well as the films Braveheart Queensferry, and a list of his ten favourite and Mrs Brown. He played Wamba (the whiskies appeared with his tasting notes hero’s squire) in the BBC’s 1997 in The Independent (08/12/03). In a adaptation of Ivanhoe and has been a Highland News (15/11/03) interview with member of the Royal Shakespeare Donald Fraser, Iain claimed not to be a Company. He recently gained rave connoisseur, but a “well informed lay reviews in a one-man show about Charles person”. Dickens called The Haunted Man that was written by John Clifford and directed by The publishers used the promotional Ian Grieve. slogan “One man. One hundred distilleries. No contest” on their website, and also in a

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Raw Spirit Reviews Raw Spirit Index A quick tour round some of the comments One of the things that is missing from Raw reviewers made about Raw Spirit. Spirit, along with a map, is an index so that after a first reading the reader can Rosemary Goring conjured up a beguiling easily return to stories of interest. Here is image with her description of the book as a short one which lists where his own “a blend of Three Men in a Boat, Bill books are mentioned in the UK hardback. Bryson, and Keir Hardie, with a smattering of Wind in the Willows” in the Herald (01/11/03). She did, however, bemoan the - Edinburgh launch, 43 lack of any maps to accompany the book, Complicity and comment that the idea “one of the - capsiacins, 74 most clichéd in terms of Scottish - chill-filtering whisky, 103 publishing”. One of the writers Rosemary - ending for The Bridge, 292 mentioned, Tom Morton, used his diary in - film location 121 the Sunday Herald (07/12/03) to point out how similar Iain’s book is to his own 1992 - paperback, 36 tome Spirit of Adventure: A Journey Dead Air Beyond The Whisky Trails (ISBN - aircraft security, 331 1851584986), and suggested that while he - film script, 289 was not litigious, his publisher may be. - research for, 304

The Sunday Telegraph writer Tom Fort Espedair Street in his review (16/11/03) praised Iain for - film script, 289 his enthusiasm, but thought that all his - soundtrack album, 296 effort in visiting the distilleries could have resulted in more about whisky and its - game based on, 183-184 makers. He also commented that Iain suffered from the “usual problem” of food The Bridge and drink writers, “translating taste into - ending, 292 text”, and turns one of Iain comments - film script, 289 about novel writing back on the author by - Gary Lloyd CD version, 295 agreeing “You rarely need that many - input of James Hale, 250 adjectives, Iain”. - invitation to Bonar Bridge, 244 - steam trains, 348 In his review for (06/12/03) David Horspool called Banks - geography of Jura, 69 “a genial guide”, and complemented his - TV adaptation, 21 travel writing, but felt that there were “too - TV producer, 304 many disquisitions, that seem less like elegant digressions than diversionary The Player of Games tactics”. - dedication, 188-190 - fire-planet inspiration, 258 Paul Carbray in the Montreal Gazette The Wasp Factory (24/01/04) was consistently negative - author name, 249-259 commenting that in a book “that purports - not autobiographical, 43-44 to be about single malt whisky, there's - off the slush pile, 250-251 little light shed on the subject”. Whilst the - paperback, 36 reviewer in Time Out took a different view - describing it as “very readable”, and “hugely informative”. - Indo-Gale fusion cooking, 267

The Banksoniain Issue #1, Page #5 Banks in Translation Песнь Камня is my favourite Russian cover – although it was set in a castle I do Russian Editions. Iain has stated that he not remember that many knights in armour particularly likes the translations of his in A Song of Stone. works that do not use the Latin alphabet just for how different they are. The Hebrew and Japanese editions fall into this category, as well as the Russian editions. So here is a quick tour of the works of

Иэн (М.) Бэнкс.

The first Russian translation of a Banks work was the 1996 edition of Against a Dark Background aka По Ту Сторону Тьмы, which was re-issued in 1999 with a slightly more violent different cover. It was produced by a company called T'Sentrpoligraf and was the only “M” book available in Russian until a company called AST took up some of the Sci-Fi rights and produced translations of

Consider Phlebas (Вспомни о Флебе), (Выбор Оружия), Excession (Эксцессия) and Look to Who's Who Windward (Взгляд с Наветренной Стороны) in the last couple years. Iain Banks took another step into the establishment with his inclusion in the The non Sci-Fi works have also been 2004 edition of the famous reference work. produced by two companies: Azbooka and His entry was reproduced in an article in Eksmo. With the former starting with (05/01/04) that listed all the (Шаги по Стеклу), and new entrants, is disappointingly short, just going on to The Wasp Factory (Осиная listing parts of his educational and career Фабрика) and The Bridge (Мост) which history and the titles of just four of his contains a biography of Banks, a guide as published works. The infamous latitude to the pronunciation of Menzies, and that the tome gives those it includes to list copious footnotes to the book to explain their recreations has not been utilised at the cultural (mainly musical) references to all. His fellow new entrants listed “left- its readership. There seem to be two wing censoriousness.”, “playing piano editions of Осиная Фабрика, so it could badly”, and “laughter” amongst their be that it was popular enough for a hobbies. Hopefully Iain will amend his paperback version. entry next year and provide some insights Eksmo have started with Espedair Street into his personality as, for example, when (Улица Отчаяния), he applied to university and had to fill in a (Бизнес), A Song of Stone (Песнь Камня) form that had a question about his and Canal Dreams (Канал Грез) and are interests; he just put one - Explosives. listed by the Marsh Agency, who deal with Previous establishment recognition has the foreign rights for most of Iain's work, seen Iain listed as #16 in the “fifty Scots as the rights holders for The Crow Road, shaping world culture” by the Scotsman Complicity, Whit and Dead Air. Our (08/02/03), and at #98 in the Scottish Russian readers look as if they may be Power 100 list of the Observer (18/04/99). well catered for in the next few years as these books begin to hit the shelves.

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down. When communication was The Wasp Factory at 20 established a lunch was arranged where Iain’s first question was whether anybody Iain Banks first published novel was had to approve James’s decision, and after released on a largely unsuspecting world being told no, he relaxed and had signed a on his thirtieth birthday, 16th February deal by Wednesday. 1984. Twenty years on The Banksoniain looks back at its initial reception and how It came to be published on Iain’s thirtieth it is regarded now. through the interaction of a number of factors. In 1984 Iain’s birthday was on a The Wasp Factory was written in the Thursday, and in those days all books were summer of 1980 when Iain was living in published on Thursdays. This apparently London, and was the first book that he had something to do with getting reviews ever did a proper second draft of. Much of into the Sunday papers. After Iain’s the inspiration for the physical setting of submission there was presumably some the book comes from when Iain was editing time and the proofs had been working for British Steel as a non- produced by September 1983. By this destructive testing technician at Nigg Bay time it was looking like being published in in 1976. There is now a bird sanctuary in the first quarter of 1984 and so Iain the area, described by the RSPB as “an suggested his birthday – the date Iain had extensive area of mudflat, saltmarsh and told himself he should make it by. wet grassland on the Cromarty Firth”. Iain also credits the area further up the coast at Initial reviews were mixed, to some extent Portmahomack where he was living then. reflecting one of the reader’s reports from To some extent it was a sell-out after Gollancz (a publisher that had rejected the failing with four novels he book) that Iain was told about years later had attempted to get published, Iain which read “Quite well written, but far too decided to try his hand at a more weird to be published”. Many of the mainstream genre on the grounds that he reviews whatever their thrust - good, bad could send the work to more publishers. or indifferent - were quoted in the Futura This manuscript had been rejected by six paperback edition. or so before arriving at Macmillan, and One of the most outraged was that in The there eventually being handed to James Times (16/02/84) reproduced below. Hale after passing through the crime department, perhaps, Iain thinks, because a policeman appears on the first page.

By this time it was March 1983, and Iain was less than a year from his self imposed deadline of making it or returning to Scotland. James Hale read what he described as a tatty manuscript on a Sunday morning (with a hangover), and the next day telephoned Iain to arrange a meeting. This, so the story goes, was not the simplest of matters. Mr Hale (like many others) was slightly apprehensive about what sort of person might have written the book. Iain at this time was working as a costs clerk for a firm of lawyers, and when the switchboard operator answered the phone stating the The name of the reviewer, Andrew company name, James put his receiver Gimson, was not unknown to the rejection

The Banksoniain Issue #1, Page #7 pile at Macmillan, and when the fact that into a film - the long, complex and his day job was at Conservative Central frustratingly incomplete story of which is Office was revealed to Iain he pronounced covered in its own special article on p #9. himself happy that he was upsetting The book is now taught on a exam board Tories. Mr Gimson eventually had a novel English syllabuses. The Assessment and published in 1991, Desired Effect, Qualifications Alliance has used it as a set (Chapmans) which does not seem to have book for a number of years, and their 2001 which set the publishing world alight, or report states that in one section of the spawned any further demand. The Times exam although two other books were gave Walking on Glass a more positive available to choose to illustrate the review the following year, with Hugh student’s responses “only answers on The Barnes (07/03/85) admitting that “The Wasp Factory were received”. Wasp Factory, was greeted with suspicion by some reviewers (nowhere more so than Iain has allowed the Wasp Factory name to on these pages). Perhaps they mistook its be used by a few bands, but more obtrusive arrangement of devices for successful has been the record company indecorousness that made them uneasy”. with the website www.wasp-factory.com. It was formed by Lee Chaos in order to Iain has subsequently commented that release the second album from The Chaos some hard bitten horror readers have come Engine, and then went on to “offer its up to him and complained that after services to many kindred spirits in the UK reading the reviews, and then the book electronica, industrial and goth scene”. they spent their time waiting for something particularly nasty to happen and were The Wasp Factory has come a long way in ultimately disappointed. twenty years, from being described as the written equivalent of a video-nasty via Since its original publication the book has stage and radio adaptations to achieving been translated into twenty or so different the respectability of being taught for GCE languages including Russian, Hebrew, exams. The author has published another Japanese (which Iain likes for their non nineteen books, and although slowing Latin alphabets) with many different cover shows no sign of stopping with his designs - the Finnish edition had a burning twentieth due this summer. He has entered dog on the cover, whilst the French and the hallowed pages of Who’s Who, and if Americans went, somewhat uninspiringly The Scotsman (17/09/03) can be believed for wasps. The UK (Futura) paperback has a baseline income of over a quarter of had its distinctive black and white cover, a a million pounds per annum (100 times his theme that was continued in all Iain’s UK original advance) putting him in their top paperbacks until Dead Air. The cover of 100 earners in Scotland list. which disappointed many long-time fans. What does the next twenty years hold, The Wasp Factory has been performed on perhaps a sequel? Iain once commented the professional stage, in an adaptation by that although he did not like the idea of Malcolm Sutherland that went through sequels he had thought of a plot for The some evolution in terms of presentation, Wasp Factory 2 based around the search including the number of actors used to for Mother, and a title to go with it: The play the lead role, before it transferred to Lost Wax Method. Or even a film? London after originally being performed in Glasgow and then in Leeds. The Rotterdam based Ro Theatre has staged productions of De Wespenfabriek around The Netherlands and also in Germany. It has been abridged and read on BBC Radio 4 in the what was then the Late Book slot, and it may (or may not) have been made

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secured. A third screenplay by Neal The Story of the Film Purvis and Robert Wade is mentioned as being written in 1995 in the publicity The rights were sold, quite soon after material for Die Another Day, which they publication, to Strongbow the company also wrote, and I believe that this was the that produced the film ‘Eat the Peach’. basis for the shooting that did take place Iain used this money to buy a BMW. The which was done with no big name actors. rights were due to revert back to Iain in January 1996, but the company then Whilst the production and the legal holding the rights - Strongbow having manoeuvres went on a 1997 article in been taken over twice by now - claimed to Variety mentioned that “London-based have started principal photography. This Renaissance Films, which remains willing was disputed by Iain (in the Irish courts, as to bankroll a Daldry-directed pic of Iain this was where Strongbow had been based Banks' novel The Wasp Factory if the at the time of the original agreement) and director is still interested. ‘If he wants to the matter was reportedly only settled (in do it, it's there for him’ producer Stephen Iain’s favour) in 2002. Evans says”. Whether they thought they owned the rights or perhaps expected the In the meantime, however, different court action to be resolved quicker than it sources reported that Russell Avis was is unclear. Productions were making the film with the director being Meiert Avis (who has There have been other rumours concerning directed music videos for the likes of , the film. One was that Michael Stipe, of , and the Thompson REM, tried to buy the rights off the then Twins). They seem to have continued holder as the band wanted to do the production whilst the legal wrangles went soundtrack for the film. In one interview on. A 1999 article in Shoot (an American Iain mentioned that he was trying to get a publication about film production – not the cameo as the barman (who just has one British football comic) about a post line), and in another that the story had production company called Miss Jones been relocated to Manhattan and that Jodie intriguingly mentions “a hallucinatory Foster and/or Julian Lennon had been computer graphics sequence for the feature talked of as playing the lead role. film The Wasp Factory, now in post- So to summarise. It seems that Russell production at Windmill Lane”. Miss Jones Avis/Windmill Lane (with Miss Jones) did is/was the design/animation division of a make a movie (probably based on the 1995 company called Windmill Lane which has Purvis/Wade screenplay) with unknown links to Russell Avis Productions. It is actors, including some late 1990s era CGI also possible to find a few resumes (CVs) sequences. Somewhere this unseen, and on the Internet that mention work on The possibly unfinished film is languishing. Wasp Factory which is further evidence for actual filming to have taken place. So what does the future hold? The rights seem to be back with Iain, but will The first screenplay was written by Iain anybody pick up this controversial twenty and the then would-be director of the film year old novel? Iain is quoted as saying “I – a process that Iain did not enjoy. This don’t care anymore”. Perhaps the was touted around for a couple of years twentieth anniversary may jolt the but failed to secure any financial backing, memories of some of the filmmakers who and a new screenwriter brought in to do a had wanted to make it earlier in their version. This was done by Chris Wicking, careers. about which Iain commented in an interview (c. 1989) that it was good “but not funny enough”. In December 1987, Iain believed that 75% of the money needed for a low budget film had been

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The Unwritten Banks Banks Obscura th Piece - Radio 5 - June 6 1991 041 – a poem This radio version of the short story Piece The Wasp Factory was accepted for is, probably, the first adaptation of a Banks publication in March 1983, but was not work. The story was originally published published until February 1984. In the in the Observer Magazine, and then in meantime Iain had a poem called 041 the collection . The published in the 1983 edition of New radio adaptation was by Craig Warner, and Writing Scotland. This was the first of, a actually expands the work rather than the still going, series that “publishes works by usual adapter’s requirement of cutting writers resident in Scotland or Scots by sections out. Munro’s letter is changed to birth or upbringing” and describes itself as a dictated message to ‘Kid’. The original “an annual volume publishing poetry and encounters with the faithful; Jack on the prose from both emerging and established bus, and Mo on the train, have been writers”. extended, and augmented by a third, added by giving the girl on the plane a name The title of the poem is the old telephone (Eve), a belief in the Biblical version of area code for Glasgow, and the poem itself creation, and dialogue which expresses is twenty-one lines long and is about that, which Munro had previously only phoning a lover from a long way away. surmised about. New Writing Scotland, published by the Credits: Association for Scottish Literary Studies, Munro - Bill Paterson ISBN: 0950262943. Jack - Harry Jones

Mo - Bhaskar ? (undecipherable) Chris Coco - “Next Wave” Eve / Voice - Susan Sheridan The radio DJ’s album includes a track Director - John York called Dreaming that sets Iain’s reading of an extract from Canal Dreams to music. The Wasp Factory – Radio 4 – 1997 According to Chris Coco’s website Iain’s Another adaptation by Craig Warner, this reading took six takes to record, and “Iain abridgement was read by Joe McFadden in still doesn’t like the sound of his own the weekday “Late Book” slot in ten 15- th th voice.” Is this Iain’s only official minute parts between 24 March and 4 appearance on Viny? April. The director was Alex Burrett. Distinct'ive (2002) DISNCD78/DISNLP78

Frozen Gold – Tribute Album? Four Degrees of Iain Banks At his appearance at the 2003 Edinburgh Iain has three honorary degrees to go with Book Festival Iain mentioned that he and his English BA from the University of musician Gary Lloyd were trying to get a Stirling. Iain has picked up honorary tribute album recorded of the songs they doctorates from St Andrews and Napier as wrote for the radio version of Espedair well as his original alma mater. Street. This is instead of the film that is looking less and less likely to be made. Iain Banks Prize for Creative Fiction Iain had sold an option (1996) to Roger Gourock High School (Iain’s old Gray for £1, in return for being allowed secondary school) has awarded the Iain first crack at the songs. Roger wrote a Banks Prize for Creative Fiction since screenplay that attracted interest, and was 1995. The first winner was Rory Beaton described as being in pre-production in who received the award from Iain himself December 2000, but never seems to have in a presentation at the school. been properly green lighted.

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James Hale eBay Watch We owe Mr Hale a debt of gratitude, for A signed copy of New Writing Scotland his “discovery” of Iain Banks (see The for £51.20 after ten bids, and a signed Wasp Factory at 20, pv#7) and subsequent proof for Consider Phlebas went for £52 editing of Iain’s work, of which he was not after six. A signed US first edition of The uncritical. He completely rejected a Wasp Factory sold for £46.30, whilst an manuscript called O (the one written after unsigned UK first went for £99 attracting Walking on Glass) and made significant ten bids. cuts in the effort after that, The Bridge. Two UK firsts of his second book, Iain has toyed with the idea of restoring Walking on Glass sold recently; one for these passages in an unabridged version, £29.99 and one for $14.04 (c. £7.50). whilst admitting that James was right to Some weeks there are bidders and some reject the other work. weeks there aren’t, although condition Iain felt so comfortable with his editor that may, of course, have played a part in these he saw no need to have an agent until different prices, it is very difficult to judge James left Macmillan, and continued to the condition of a book you may only have use him as a freelance editor, as did some seen a photograph of. A copy of the other authors. James Hale died on 14th Macmillan edition of Walking on Glass is August 2003. The Bridge, a favourite of worth having for the scary picture of an Iain’s that his editor had to work early 30s Iain on the inside backflap in a particularly hard on, is dedicated to James, dark suit, white shirt and tie, trying to look as Raw Spirit is to his memory. like what he and/or the photographer

thought a proper author should look like.

Not “THE” Iain Banks From the old to the new, and an Edinburgh book dealer sold a signed first edition of This fanzine deals with Iain (Menzies) Raw Spirit along with a signed issue of the Banks the novelist, not Dr Iain (Bernard Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s winter Joseph) Banks MA, PhD, MIFA, FSA 2003/4 newsletter that included an extract Scot, the Glasgow based archaeologist and of the book for £36, and pre-publication author of works such as Nationalism and signed samplers of the book have gone for Archaeology, and Allanfearn Sewage between £10 - £30. Farm: An Archaeological Assessment. A copy of the Novacon 17 souvenir book, Dr Banks, who sports a beard and glasses, produced by the Birmingham Science occasionally gets email from those who Fiction Group, a numbered limited edition assume him to be the novelist, and he of five hundred and which is the first thinks that some bookshops have ordered publication of Iain’s short story Cleaning his work believing it to be fiction when he Up, sold for £14.99. A bargain compared is very much a non-fiction academic to the $150 a US book dealer wants for the author. His doctorate, which is not an copy he is advertising for sale. honorary like our Iain’s, concerned the rural settlement of Scotland in the first Outside of books - promotional items millennia AD and BC. Dr Banks reads his sometimes come up for sale. A mug with namesake’s novels, and even attended a decoration from the covers for Whit and signing to have his own name put on a Excession sold for £12.50. However, two copy of Whit by the book’s real author. posters from bookshops, one for He has also been seen helping out on the and one for A Song of Stone BBC TV archaeology series - Two Men in that had been signed by Iain failed to reach a Trench. the reserve prices the seller had set.

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Banks’s Next Book The Big Read The perennial question for any author is - The BBC recently ran a public vote to what is your next book? In a Liverpool establish the British public’s “best loved” Post interview (23/11/03) he stated that he book. The initial voting period in April enjoyed the escapism of writing about 2003 produced a top 100, and then a whisky but was glad to get back to Sci-Fi further series of programmes used as “There's no fact checking to be done. I celebrities to advocate the top twenty one, just have to make sure I'm consistent with and invite more votes eventually leading to all the silly names”. Yes - Iain's next book a live final for the top 5 where The Lord of is an ‘M’ one, and should be published in the Rings won. The books voted for by the the summer of 2004. There is a listing on public were many and varied, but none of Amazon to that effect with the title SF Iain’s made the top 100. Novel, and a publication date of July 30th. Perhaps his vote was split between his 18 Some hints as to the content of the book novels? However, this initial theory lost have reached the ultimate rumour mill that credibility after the second hundred were is the Internet. On his publishers website listed on the programme's website and The it states that although it is SF it is NOT a Wasp Factory made the only appearance Culture book, giving a publication date in of a Banks work at #108. August. Iain has also apparently been Perhaps Iain's books whilst widely read researching gas giant planets (like Jupiter) and highly regarded just do not fit into the and apparently knows more than a normal “best loved” category that the BBC were person probably should about how big searching for? The list certainly contains a planets can theoretically get before they high proportion of children's books, and become stars. others that would have been read at school In a talk last August 2003 Iain mentioned at an impressionable age, and much of the that he had the central plot idea for the original publicity had been aimed at novel the previous November, and whilst libraries, schools and schoolchildren. researching and writing Raw Spirit he had Perhaps being a telephone and Internet been doing the usual plot refinement based vote, the self-selecting panel of activities he does before he actually begins 140,000, that chose over 6,000 different to write. He also said that he planned to books for the initial rankings just did not start writing in October, and if he follows include Iain's readership. Such was the the modus operandi he has previously lack of ‘Scottish’ books on the list that the outlined in interviews will write in the bookshop chain Ottakar's, in conjunction region of 3,000 words a day, five days a with the Herald newspaper, were week, to have a manuscript done by prompted to run a vote exclusively for Christmas. He will then take time off for Scottish books. Iain fared well on this list, Hogmanay (especially so with all the with more books (ten) in the top 100 than whisky he has stockpiled), and then start any other writer. Headed by Irvine working with his editor in the New Year to Welsh's Trainspotting, with The Wasp hone the book for a summer publication. th th Factory 6 and The Crow Road 9 , in This book marks the end of Iain’s current terms of overall votes Iain was 3rd behind contract with Time Warner. What will his Robert Louis Stevenson and Irvine Welsh. next career move will be now he is fifty, James Hale is no longer with us and Timer The Banksoniain is available in PDF Warner Books was apparently put up for from http://efanzines.com sale last year? Small Print: © 2004 The Banksoniain and its writers.

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