The Scottish writer responds to outpouring of good wishes since his illness was announced
'I feel treasured, I feel loved' … Iain Banks. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Scottish novelist Iain Banks has offered a "huge thanks" to the thousands of fans who have poured out their love for his writing since he – in his own words – "pre-announce[d his] own demise" earlier this month.
In his first update since he told the world that he had been diagnosed with gall bladder cancer at the start of April, Banks said that he was now home from his honeymoon "to mostly-sunny-with-a-touch-of-rain Venice and then mostly-rainy-with-a-touch-of-sun Paris", and had been "truly stunned" by the response to his announcement. His new wife Adele, who in her own update wrote that "after Iain proposed, I was referred to as Mrs-B-to-Be. Now that we're married, I'm Mrs-B-to-Be-As-Was", has been reading him many of the messages from fans, and Banks promised to read them all, in time. They now number in the thousands.
"Good grief! – what an outpouring of love, affection and respect. I honestly had no idea," wrote the author. "Discovering the sheer extent and depth of the feelings people have expressed on the message board over the past two weeks has been truly astounding.
I feel treasured, I feel loved, I feel I've done more than just pursue the craft I adore and make a living from it, and more than just fulfil the only real ambition I've ever had – of becoming a professional writer. I am deeply flattered and touched, and I can't deny I've been made to feel very special indeed."
Banks speculated that every author has actually "engendered more love out there than we think we have, and it's only the fact that I've been able to pre-announce my own demise that has allowed me to realise my portion of that love in full while I'm still around to appreciate it". He will now, he said, start telling other writers how much they have meant to him, starting with the "amazing" Alasdair Gray.
Banks's cancer means, the novelist said on 3 April, that "I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year". He has spent time in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary since returning from honeymoon "after feeling distinctly dodgy in Paris that morning. I was kept in until Tuesday (though I did have a day pass that let me come home for a while over Sunday/early Monday … nothing about any of this is simple …). The upshot is that a partial blockage of the stent that was emplaced earlier appears to have been dealt with in a procedure that took place on Monday afternoon and my bilirubin levels have started to come down again."
The author has nonetheless continued working on his new novel, The Quarry, which is out on 20 June. The book tells the story of Kit – "strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from 'highly gifted' at one end, to 'nutter' at the other", who doesn't know who his mother is and whose father is dying of cancer. It is, said publisher Little, Brown, "a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks' greatest work".
Banks ended his blog with a promise to "continue to post the occasional update for as long as I'm able".
In his first update since he told the world that he had been diagnosed with gall bladder cancer at the start of April, Banks said that he was now home from his honeymoon "to mostly-sunny-with-a-touch-of-rain Venice and then mostly-rainy-with-a-touch-of-sun Paris", and had been "truly stunned" by the response to his announcement. His new wife Adele, who in her own update wrote that "after Iain proposed, I was referred to as Mrs-B-to-Be. Now that we're married, I'm Mrs-B-to-Be-As-Was", has been reading him many of the messages from fans, and Banks promised to read them all, in time. They now number in the thousands.
"Good grief! – what an outpouring of love, affection and respect. I honestly had no idea," wrote the author. "Discovering the sheer extent and depth of the feelings people have expressed on the message board over the past two weeks has been truly astounding.
I feel treasured, I feel loved, I feel I've done more than just pursue the craft I adore and make a living from it, and more than just fulfil the only real ambition I've ever had – of becoming a professional writer. I am deeply flattered and touched, and I can't deny I've been made to feel very special indeed."
Banks speculated that every author has actually "engendered more love out there than we think we have, and it's only the fact that I've been able to pre-announce my own demise that has allowed me to realise my portion of that love in full while I'm still around to appreciate it". He will now, he said, start telling other writers how much they have meant to him, starting with the "amazing" Alasdair Gray.
Banks's cancer means, the novelist said on 3 April, that "I'm expected to live for 'several months' and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year". He has spent time in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary since returning from honeymoon "after feeling distinctly dodgy in Paris that morning. I was kept in until Tuesday (though I did have a day pass that let me come home for a while over Sunday/early Monday … nothing about any of this is simple …). The upshot is that a partial blockage of the stent that was emplaced earlier appears to have been dealt with in a procedure that took place on Monday afternoon and my bilirubin levels have started to come down again."
The author has nonetheless continued working on his new novel, The Quarry, which is out on 20 June. The book tells the story of Kit – "strange, odd, socially disabled, on a spectrum that stretches from 'highly gifted' at one end, to 'nutter' at the other", who doesn't know who his mother is and whose father is dying of cancer. It is, said publisher Little, Brown, "a virtuoso performance whose soaring riffs on the inexhaustible marvel of human perception and rage against the dying of the light will stand among Iain Banks' greatest work".
Banks ended his blog with a promise to "continue to post the occasional update for as long as I'm able".
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