The Scottish crime writer says his late friend's best years as a writer might have been ahead of him.
Ian Rankin, left, on his fellow
Scottish writer and late friend Iain Banks: "He wasn't coming to the end of his
time as a writer" Photo: Clara Malden; Chris
Watt
Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus stories, told BBC Radio Scotland: "He
does leave behind a substantial body of work. He was 59. Writers tend to go on
to their 70s and 80s and beyond, they don't stop writing.
"In some ways he was a machine, he was doing a book a year - a sci-fi novel,
then a straight novel, then a sci fi novel.
"The writing still excited him, the ideas still excited him, there was no
shortage of ideas, he wasn't coming to the end of his time as a writer."
Rankin also praised his friend's ability to move seamlessly between literary
fiction, written under the name Iain Banks, and sci fi,
written under the name Iain M Banks.
"I think he absolutely loved that he could straddle both worlds because not
many writers can do that successfully," Rankin told the Good Morning Scotland
programme.
"He could go off to science fiction conventions, he could go to comic shops and sign for people who were very excited to meet him and talk about this world that he created, this culture he created.
"But he could also go to traditional bookshops and talk to audiences, go to literary festivals, and he loved that he could do both of those."
"There were things he could do in the science fiction that he couldn't do in the straight novel and vice versa."
Rankin remembered Banks a gregarious man with a great imagination, an impish sense of humour and a "child-like wonder at the world".
He said the author had taken a sudden turn for the worse after believing only last week that he had a few months to live. Following a diagnosis of late stage gall bladder cancer in March, Banks had kept fans informed of his deteriorating health with regular updates on Banksophilia, a website set up by a friend.
"There was still plenty to do and he was loving what life he had left," Rankin said. "It's just one of the things with cancer, just when you're not looking, that's when it hits you in the face."
Yesterday, on hearing that Banks was dead, Rankin had tweeted that he would like "to kick cancer in its sniggering head". Instead, he had drunk a single malt in honour of his friend, who was a connoisseur of Scottish whisky. "As many of you know, terrible news of Iain Banks. Away the crow road far too soon..."
In an earlier interview this morning, Rankin told the Today programme on Radio 4 that Banks was very modest about his work, pointing out that he had included criticism as well as praise on the inside cover of his controversial debut novel, The Wasp Factory.
“He had a self-deprecating sense of his own worth. But those who knew him knew him as a man who was passionate about life, he had many passions, some quite idiosyncratic, he was a terrific person to hang around with," he said.
Rankin added that Banks had been a political animal who was in favour of Scottish independence in later life.
“He was anti some of the stuff Tony Blair did,” Rankin recalled. “To such an extent he cut up his passport and sent it to Downing Street in protest at the Iraq war, having forgotten he was supposed to be going on a tour of Australia a few weeks later.”
Banks's last novel, The Quarry, is published on June 20 and depicts the final weeks in the life of a cancer-ridden character called Guy.
"He could go off to science fiction conventions, he could go to comic shops and sign for people who were very excited to meet him and talk about this world that he created, this culture he created.
"But he could also go to traditional bookshops and talk to audiences, go to literary festivals, and he loved that he could do both of those."
"There were things he could do in the science fiction that he couldn't do in the straight novel and vice versa."
Rankin remembered Banks a gregarious man with a great imagination, an impish sense of humour and a "child-like wonder at the world".
He said the author had taken a sudden turn for the worse after believing only last week that he had a few months to live. Following a diagnosis of late stage gall bladder cancer in March, Banks had kept fans informed of his deteriorating health with regular updates on Banksophilia, a website set up by a friend.
"There was still plenty to do and he was loving what life he had left," Rankin said. "It's just one of the things with cancer, just when you're not looking, that's when it hits you in the face."
Yesterday, on hearing that Banks was dead, Rankin had tweeted that he would like "to kick cancer in its sniggering head". Instead, he had drunk a single malt in honour of his friend, who was a connoisseur of Scottish whisky. "As many of you know, terrible news of Iain Banks. Away the crow road far too soon..."
In an earlier interview this morning, Rankin told the Today programme on Radio 4 that Banks was very modest about his work, pointing out that he had included criticism as well as praise on the inside cover of his controversial debut novel, The Wasp Factory.
“He had a self-deprecating sense of his own worth. But those who knew him knew him as a man who was passionate about life, he had many passions, some quite idiosyncratic, he was a terrific person to hang around with," he said.
Rankin added that Banks had been a political animal who was in favour of Scottish independence in later life.
“He was anti some of the stuff Tony Blair did,” Rankin recalled. “To such an extent he cut up his passport and sent it to Downing Street in protest at the Iraq war, having forgotten he was supposed to be going on a tour of Australia a few weeks later.”
Banks's last novel, The Quarry, is published on June 20 and depicts the final weeks in the life of a cancer-ridden character called Guy.
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09 Jun 2013 - Iain Banks reveals brutal impact of cancer in final book
09 Jun 2013
