Phil Miller - Arts Correspondent -Wednesday 12 June 2013
Nationalism, religion, cancer, writing, cocaine, music and Scotland are all tackled head-on in the late Iain Banks' final interview.
Kirsty Wark's BBC Scotland interview with the novelist, who died on Sunday, aged 59, only two months after announcing he was battling cancer, covers a series of topics as eclectic as his writing.
Banks, interviewed at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, shows Ms Wark the musical compositions he has created, reveals he was planning a new Science Fiction "Culture" novel in case he survived his illness, explains his political journey to supporting Scottish independence, his love of driving fast cars and what he did when he found out the seriousness of his condition.
He said that when he heard news of his gall bladder cancer, in the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, he had his laptop with him, with 87,000 words written of his novel.
He then wrote a speech for one of the main characters in The Quarry, a man called Guy who is dying from cancer.
"So having got this news I sat in bed and I wrote – there's a bit where Guy says I shall not be upset to leave this stupid bloody country and this bloody human race and this idiotic world and the rest of it, it's a proper rant you know," he says.
In the documentary, entitled Iain Banks: Raw Spirit, broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland tonight at 9pm, and broadcast again on the full BBC network next Tuesday in a half-hour form, Banks also talks about his political beliefs and his support for Scottish independence.
He says: "I didn't realise how Scottish I was in a sense for a long time.
"I remember shocking my parents when they were still here in the 'Ferry, before the age of nine, telling my mum and dad I felt more British than Scottish. [They said] 'What? You're no son of mine, get out.' I think that kind of changed, you kind of come to realise how much of your culture is specifically Scottish.
"I think it profoundly started to change when Thatcher came to power and realised that the one nation conservatism was gone.
"In a sense, even more when Labour stopped being Labour and became New Labour, I think Scottish people are just kind of automatically you know more communitarian, more socialist if you like.
"It's only fair that is reflected in the governments that we have."
He reveals he was planning to spend his final months writing music and trying to make it "presentable" in some format, and adds: "I am going to try and get the plot for the next Culture novel together so that just in case there is some sort of miracle cure or whatever."
He said that when he heard news of his gall bladder cancer, in the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, he had his laptop with him, with 87,000 words written of his novel.
He then wrote a speech for one of the main characters in The Quarry, a man called Guy who is dying from cancer.
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Banks, interviewed at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, shows Ms Wark the musical compositions he has created, reveals he was planning a new Science Fiction "Culture" novel in case he survived his illness, explains his political journey to supporting Scottish independence, his love of driving fast cars and what he did when he found out the seriousness of his condition.
He said that when he heard news of his gall bladder cancer, in the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, he had his laptop with him, with 87,000 words written of his novel.
He then wrote a speech for one of the main characters in The Quarry, a man called Guy who is dying from cancer.
"So having got this news I sat in bed and I wrote – there's a bit where Guy says I shall not be upset to leave this stupid bloody country and this bloody human race and this idiotic world and the rest of it, it's a proper rant you know," he says.
In the documentary, entitled Iain Banks: Raw Spirit, broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland tonight at 9pm, and broadcast again on the full BBC network next Tuesday in a half-hour form, Banks also talks about his political beliefs and his support for Scottish independence.
He says: "I didn't realise how Scottish I was in a sense for a long time.
"I remember shocking my parents when they were still here in the 'Ferry, before the age of nine, telling my mum and dad I felt more British than Scottish. [They said] 'What? You're no son of mine, get out.' I think that kind of changed, you kind of come to realise how much of your culture is specifically Scottish.
"I think it profoundly started to change when Thatcher came to power and realised that the one nation conservatism was gone.
"In a sense, even more when Labour stopped being Labour and became New Labour, I think Scottish people are just kind of automatically you know more communitarian, more socialist if you like.
"It's only fair that is reflected in the governments that we have."
He reveals he was planning to spend his final months writing music and trying to make it "presentable" in some format, and adds: "I am going to try and get the plot for the next Culture novel together so that just in case there is some sort of miracle cure or whatever."
He then wrote a speech for one of the main characters in The Quarry, a man called Guy who is dying from cancer.
More
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