Related Tags: Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod, Simon Pegg, The Wasp Factory
Our much loved and admired author, Iain Banks would have celebrated his 60th birthday today, Sunday 16th February. To mark the date, Little, Brown is delighted to announce that in February 2015, we will publish a collection of Iain and Ken Macleod's poems, edited by Ken.
Simon Pegg, a long-standing fan of Iain's work, said this month:
'Whenever I am asked about a favourite book, I immediately think of The Wasp Factory. Iain Banks' beguiling novel is a funny, terrifying, beautiful piece of writing; a story told through the complex, compartmentalised thoughts of a calmly amoral, occasionally homicidal child, no more guilty of insanity than the questionable authority figures that surround this fractured youth. The Wasp Factory has stayed with me since the first of several reads and haunts me still, buried in my brain like maggots, the images appearing in my mind's eye like so many burning sheep on the horizon.
If I had only read this one book of Iain's and not devoured and enjoyed much of his other work, he would still be one of my all-time favourite authors.'
– Simon Pegg, actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer – February 2014
Many fans continue to leave messages and tributes to Iain on the Banksophilia website set up by Iain's friends. http://friends.banksophilia.com/guestbook/
John Mullan on readers' responses to 'The Wasp Factory'
Iain Banks on 'The Wasp Factory' in The Guardian
Iain Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' to feature in The Guardian