Iain Menzies Banks, (born Feb. 16, 1954, Dunfermline, Fife, Scot.—died June 9, 2013, Kirkcaldy, Fife), Scottish author who captured readers’ imaginations with thrilling and dark fiction, notably with his twisted literary debut, The Wasp Factory (1984).
Considered by some an atrocity of unparalleled perversity, the controversial yet carefully crafted novel portrays the sadistic indulgences of a disturbed young narrator. The work, which left many readers mesmerized and disgusted all at once, earned Banks an immediate following. Though he was notorious for his chilling horror stories, Banks also enjoyed success with works of science fiction; for the latter he wrote under the name Iain M. Banks.
He received extensive literary praise for the mainstream novels Complicity (1993), which was adapted into a film, and The Crow Road (1992), which was made into a four-part BBC television series. Banks, proud of his Scottish heritage, explored his love of malt whiskey in Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram (2003). He was educated at the University of Stirling, where he studied English literature, philosophy, and psychology.
He pursued full-time writing following the success of The Wasp Factory. Banks was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few weeks before the completion of his 27th novel, The Quarry, which depicts the final weeks of a man dying of cancer. He succumbed days before it was released.
