Iain Banks: a double life

John Self recalls the brilliant but wayward talent of a novelist who wrote both literary and science fiction and whose disturbing debut, The Wasp Factory, is being reissued this year

FORTY YEARS AGO, A DEBUT NOVEL TURNED the stomachs of the genteel reviewers of the press. “A work of unparalleled depravity,” said the Irish Times. “Perhaps it is all a joke,” offered The Times, “meant to fool literary London into respect for rubbish.” Not everyone hated it: this “outstandingly good” (Financial Times) “truly remarkable novel” (Daily Telegraph) about, er, “a family of Scots lunatics” (Sunday Express) sold more than a million copies, and launched one of the most impressive — and frustrating — literary careers of our time. Iain Banks had been writing novels without success in his twenties (“a million words of crap”, said his friend Ken MacLeod), and decided to give up if he hadn’t been published by the time he turned 30. That notorious debut, The Wasp…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2024

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