This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2009)

Genre Fiction, also known as Popular Fiction, is a term for fictional works (novels, short stories) written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.

Genre Fiction is often used interchangeably with the term popular fiction, and generally distinguished from literary fiction. The American screenwriting teacher Robert McKee defines genre conventions as the "specific settings, roles, events, and values that define individual genres and their subgenres." These conventions, always fluid, are usually implicit, but sometimes are made into explicit requirements by publishers of fiction as a guide to authors seeking publication.

Screen writers have to ensure that their stories conform to the guidelines—the closer the conformity, the greater their likelihood of being published. The publisher, for its part, is trying to meet the desires of its readers, who often have strong and specific expectations of the publisher's stories. Such "made-to-measure" writing is genre fiction in its purest form.

Most fiction writing, especially of novel length, does not conform so tightly to the conventions of a genre. Indeed, there is no consensus as to exactly what the conventions of any genre are, or even what the genres themselves are. Writers, publishers, marketers, booksellers, libraries, academics, critics, and even readers all may have different ways of classifying fiction, and any of these classifications might be termed a genre. (For example, one arguable genre of genre fiction—the airport novel—takes its name not from the subjects of its stories, but from the market where it is sold.) It is beyond doubt that readers have preferences for certain types of stories, and that there are writers and publishers who try to cater to those preferences, but the term genre remains amorphous, and the assigning of works to genres is to some extent arbitrary and subjective.

Genre and the marketing of fiction[link]

In the publishing industry the term "category fiction" is often used as a synonym for genre fiction, with the categories serving as the familiar shelf headings within the fiction section of a bookstore, such as Western or mystery.

The uncategorized section is known in the industry as "general fiction", but in fact many of the titles in this usually large section are often themselves genre novels that have been placed in the general section because sellers believe they will appeal, due to their high quality or other special characteristics, to a wider audience than merely the readers of that genre.

Evolution of fiction genres[link]

Since the beginning of literature it has been acknowledged that there are different types or categories of created work. Poetry, a form of literature older than prose, was in ancient times divided into narrative, dramatic, and lyric forms. Narrative poetry, at least as it was first written (as opposed to recited or sung), was primarily epic. Dramatic poetry came to be divided into tragedy and comedy. The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his Poetics for the first time named story genres by categorizing dramas according to the value-charge of their endings and the design of their stories.

Many fiction genres can be traced to a small number of important or extremely popular literary works written before that genre came into existence. "Genre" fiction is portrayed as those works that seek, in some degree, just to emulate these paradigms. Science fiction began with Jules Verne and then H. G. Wells, as a recognizable genre (although Mary Shelley is generally credited with having written the first science fiction novels, Frankenstein, Last Man) forty-five years before Jules Verne and H.G. Wells first literary works. Horror stories and mystery stories can both be traced in large measure to Edgar Allan Poe and a few others. It is possible also that Poe helped originate science fiction with such stories as 'The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall.'

The period 1900–1910 was fertile for the development, by writers such as M. P. Shiel, of fiction genres and character types. Often these appeared in periodicals, which eventually became the pulp magazines of the early 20th century.

Age categories[link]

Most genres of fiction may also be segmented by the age of the intended reader:

• Children's fiction
• Juvenile fiction or Young-adult fiction
• Adult fiction

List of genres[link]

As noted, there are many different ways of labeling and defining fiction genres. Following are some of the main genres as they are used in contemporary publishing:

Action-adventure[link]

Action-adventure fiction, features physical action often around a mission usually involving killing and robbing. Many times set in forbidding locales such as jungles, deserts, or mountains.

Crime[link]

Crime fiction stories, centered on criminal enterprise, are told from the point of view of the perpetrators. They range in tone from lighthearted "caper" stories to darker plots involving organized crime or incarcerated convicts.

Detective[link]

Detective fiction has become almost synonymous with mystery. These stories relate the solving of a crime, usually one or more murders, by a protagonist who may or may not be a professional investigator. This large, popular genre has many subgenres, reflecting differences in tone, character, and it always contains criminal and detective settings.

Fantasy[link]

Fantasy is a genre in which novels are placed in a world of either complete fiction or a contemporary setting where several aspects of fantasy elements are included.

Horror[link]

Horror fiction

Mystery[link]

Mystery fiction, technically involving stories in which characters try to discover a vital piece of information which is kept hidden until the climax, is now considered by many people almost a synonym for detective fiction. The standard novel stocked in the mystery section of bookstores is a whodunit. A few other types of mystery novels are Cozy Mysteries (where a group of people who are very unlikely to be mixed up in a crime become involved - these are usually not gorey) or Hard-Boiled Mysteries (where the detective/private eye etc. are very tough and unsentimental).

Romance[link]

Romance is currently the largest and best-selling fiction genre in North America. It has produced a wide array of subgenres, the majority of which feature the mutual attraction and love of a man and a woman as the main plot, and have a happy ending. This genre, much like fantasy fiction, is broad enough in definition that it is easily and commonly seen combined with other genres, such as comedy, fantasy fiction, realistic fiction, or action-adventure.

Science fiction[link]

Science fiction is defined more by setting details than by other story elements. Science fiction by definition includes extrapolated or theoretical future science and technology as a major component, and is often set on other planets, in outer space, or on a future version of Earth. Within these setting details, however, the conventions of almost any other genre may be used, including comedy, action-adventure and mystery. A sub-genre of science fiction is alternate history where, for some specific reason, the history of the novel deviates from the history of our world. Both alternate history and science fiction are often referred to alongside fantasy fiction, magical realism and some horror fiction under the umbrella term speculative fiction.

Western[link]

Western fiction is defined primarily by being set in the American West in the second half of the 19th century, and secondarily by featuring heroes who are rugged, individualistic horsemen (cowboys). Other genres, such as romance, have subgenres that make use of the Western setting.

Inspirational[link]

Inspirational fiction is a term that refers to fictional works with religious themes and aimed at a Christian audience.

See also[link]

• formula fiction
• genre studies
• melodrama
• plot device
• stock character
• Thriller (genre)

References[link]

• Forbes, Jamie M. (1998). "Fiction Dictionary". In Herman, Jeff, Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents 1999–2000, pp. 861–871. Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing.
• Gelder, Ken (2004). Popular Fiction: The Logics and Practices of a Literary Field. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-35647-4
• Johnson-Woods, Toni (2005). Pulp: A collectors book of Australian pulp fiction covers. Australia: Australian National Library. ISBN 0-642-10766-1. 
• McKee, Robert (1997). Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-039168-5.
• Sutherland, John (1981). Bestsellers: Popular Fiction of the 1970s. London and Boston: Routledge. ISBN 0-7100-0750-7
• Swirski, Peter (2005). From Lowbrow to Nobrow. Montreal, London: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3019-5

Eloisa James is the pen name of Mary Bly (born 1962). She is a tenured associate professor of English Literature at Fordham University who also writes best-selling Regency romance novels under her pen name.

She is the daughter of poet Robert Bly and short-story author Carol Bly.

Early years[link]

Mary Bly was born in Minnesota in 1962, the daughter of Robert Bly, winner of the American Book Award for poetry, and Carol Bly, a short story author. She was the inspiration for her mother's essay "The Maternity Wing, Madison, Minnesota," which was published in the anthology Imagining Home: Writing From the Midwest.^[1] Her godfather, James Wright, wrote a poem especially for her, which he included in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems.^[2] Bly has three younger siblings, Bridget, Noah,^[1] and Micah.^[3]

The Bly family did not own a television, but did own over 5000 books. Robert often read to his children, choosing to expose them to classics such as Beowulf instead of more traditional children's fare.^[4] Even at a young age, however, Mary was fascinated with romance. To entertain her siblings during a snowstorm, she built a puppet show, complete with lights, that featured a romance. Several years later, after discovering the romance novels of Georgette Heyer in her local library, Bly convinced her father to allow her to read one romance novel for each classic novel she read.^[1]

Academia[link]

After graduating from Harvard University, Bly went on to attain an M.Phil. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale University. She is a tenured associate professor lecturing on William Shakespeare at Fordham University in New York City. She has served as Director of Graduate Studies in the English Department, as well as head of Fordham's Creative Writing Program.^[5][6] In addition to publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press, she has published an academic article on 17th century drama in The Publications of the Modern Language Association, the most prestigious journal for English literary studies.^[6]

Romance novelist[link]

While attending the University of Virginia on a humanities fellowship, Bly began writing romance novels. Her second career began when her husband wished to postpone having a second child until they had paid off their student loans. To speed the process, Bly followed her parents' examples and wrote a story to send to a publisher.^[1] Two publishers bid for that novel, Potent Pleasures,^[7] netting Bly an advance that paid off her student loans in full.^[1] As she was at the time an untenured professor about to publish her first academic work,^[8] Bly made the decision to publish her fiction books under a pseudonym, Eloisa James, out of fear that her colleagues would not take her seriously as an academic if they knew of her side writing.^[9] Her books have since been translated into 9 languages^[10] and have become hard-cover bestsellers in the Netherlands and Spain. She has had 12 New York Times bestsellers and 16 USAToday bestsellers.^[2]

Bly's first three novels, the Pleasures trilogy, were published in hardcover by Dell, a plan with which Bly did not fully agree. Following the publication of those three novels she bought out the remainder of her contract and moved to Avon, where her books are now published in mass market paperback format. She believed that marketing her first works as hardcovers was not a truly successful plan and hoped to have more success with the mass-market paperbacks.^[11]

Inspiration for her novels comes in part from her academic career, as plays or facts discovered during her academic research often spark ideas for fictional plots.^[7] Her novels, which are set in England's Regency period (1811–1820), often have references to Shakespeare or include pieces of 16th-century poetry or other tidbits she has found while researching her academic papers.^[12] As she spends much of her day teaching about or reading early British English, she feels that the language choices she makes in her novels are more authentic.^[8] Although Bly has attempted to write a contemporary romance, she chose not to finish the manuscript because of difficulty writing in a contemporary voice.^[13]

The characters in Bly's novels often dispense with the typical romance novel stereotypes, with the novels featuring female characters who are plump and even a hero who annulled a marriage because of impotence.^[14] Her heroines are usually surrounded by very good female friends or sisters, as Bly finds those relationships important in her own life. Most of her novels are part of a trilogy or set of four novels which focus on a set of interconnected characters, and explores the relationships between those characters as well as that of the hero and heroine.^[15]

Revealing her alternate career identity[link]

For several years Bly's second career remained a secret, and she disguised herself by wearing contacts instead of her normal glasses when she attended functions as Eloisa James.^[4] After her first New York Times Bestseller in 2005, Bly realized that her readers liked her writing regardless of its genre, and that by keeping her identity a secret she was implying that she was ashamed of her work and of her readers.^[9] At a February 16, 2005 faculty meeting, Bly outed herself to her colleagues, revealing her alter ego and offering copies of her novels to her fellow professors. Once she had officially "come out", she submitted an op-ed to The New York Times defending the romance genre.

Juggling dual careers[link]

Bly credits her success in dual careers to being "very, very organized."^[15] Lacking the time to write every day, Bly often writes upwards of 20 pages at a time.^[16] On her days at home, Bly schedules time to work on both her fiction and her academic works. When possible, she does not work when her children are at home.^[15] Bly usually does not teach in the summers, giving her more time to devote to her writing (both academic and fiction).^[13]

Her large workload leaves her little time to research some of the historical aspects for her novels. She has hired a research assistant to confirm details of topics she would like to include in a novel.^[13]

Family[link]

Bly's father and stepmother, Ruth, are very supportive of her romance writing. Her mother, however, publicly wished that her efforts were focused towards more literary works. Despite that, Carol Bly also supported her daughter, contributing a "nifty crossword puzzle" to the Eloisa James website.^[1]

Bly's mother died from ovarian cancer. Collaborating with her publisher, Avon, an imprint of Harper Collins, she became a spokesperson, along with six other Avon Romance authors, in a program named K.I.S.S. and TEAL to increase awareness about the early symptoms of this disease. "Romance is read primarily by women, and ovarian cancer is a women’s disease. Avon and its authors are saying, “You are our readers, our women, and we want you to live long and healthy lives, so we are going to put the symptoms in the back of every one of these seven books.” We are looking out for our own readers. Almost everyone has been touched by ovarian cancer, whether by the death of a friend or a relative."^[17]

Bly is married to Alessandro Vettori, an Italian knight (or cavaliere)^[12] who is also a professor of Italian at Rutgers University,^[9] whom she met on a blind date while she was at Yale.^[14] They have a son and a daughter.^[18] The family lives primarily in New Jersey, but spends summers in Tuscany visiting Alessandro's mother and sister.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

Academic works as Mary Bly[link]

• Consuming London: Mapping Plays, Puns, and Tourists in the Early Modern City
• Bly, Mary (2000). Queer virgins and virgin queans on the early modern stage. Oxford: Oxford UP. pp. viii+213. ISBN 0-19-818699-1. http://books.google.com/?id=rRbhSkkImE0C. 

Romance novels as Eloisa James[link]

[edit] The Pleasures Trilogy

1. Potent Pleasures. Random House Publishing Group. September 2009 [1999]. ISBN 0-440-24563-X. 
2. Midnight Pleasures. Random House Publishing Group. September 2009 [2000]. ISBN 0-440-24564-8. 
3. Enchanting Pleasures. Dell. 2002 [2001]. ISBN 0-440-23458-1. 

[edit] The Duchess Quartet

1. Duchess in Love. Avon. 2002. ISBN 978-0-06-050810-4. 
2. Fool For Love. Avon. 2003. ISBN 978-0-06-050811-1. 
3. A Wild Pursuit. Avon. 2004. ISBN 978-0-06-050812-8. 
4. Your Wicked Ways. Avon. 2004. ISBN 978-0-06-056078-2. 

[edit] The Essex Sisters Series

1. Much Ado About You. Avon. 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-073206-6. 
2. Kiss Me, Annabel. Avon. 2005. ISBN 978-0-06-073210-3. 
3. The Taming of the Duke. Avon. 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-078158-3. 
4. Pleasure for Pleasure. Avon. 2006. ISBN 978-0-06-078192-7. 

[edit] The Desperate Duchesses Series

1. Desperate Duchesses. Avon. 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-078193-4. 
2. An Affair Before Christmas. Avon. 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-124554-1. 
3. Duchess by Night. Avon. 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-124557-2. 
4. When the Duke Returns. Avon. 2008. ISBN 978-0-06-124560-2. 
5. This Duchess of Mine. Avon. 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-162682-1. 
6. A Duke of Her Own. Avon. 2009. ISBN 978-0-06-162683-8. 

Novellas in Anthologies in collaboration[link]

• "A Fool Again". The One That Got Away. with Victoria Alexander, Liz Carlyle and Cathy Maxwell. 2004. ISBN 0-06-054026-5. 
• "A Proper Englishwoman". Talk of the Ton. with Rebecca Hagan Lee and Julia London. 2005. ISBN 0-425-23051-1. 
• Lady Most Likely. with Julia Quinn and Connie Brockway. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-124782-8. 

[edit] The Happily Ever Afters

• A Kiss at Midnight. Avon. 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-206052-5. 
• When Beauty Tamed the Beast. Avon. 2011. ISBN 978-0-06-202127-4. 
• The Duke is Mine. Avon. 2012. ISBN 978-0-06-202128-1. 
• The Ugly Duchess. Avon. 2012. ISBN 978-0-06-202173-1. 

Memoir as Eloisa James[link]

• Paris in Love. Random House. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4000-6956-9. 

Sources[link]

Further reading[link]

• "Shakespeare by Day, Romance at Night" (radio interview). All Things Considered. NPR. February 13, 2005. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4497605. 
• "Fordham Prof Unveiled As Romance Writer". Publishers Weekly. December 13, 2004. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA487092.html?q=eloisa+james. 

External links[link]

• Eloisa James Official Website
• Eloisa James Blog
• Mary Bly Op-Ed in the New York Times

Iain Banks
Born	Iain Banks (1954-02-16) 16 February 1954 (age 58) Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Pen name	Iain M. Banks
Occupation	writer
Nationality	Scottish
Period	1984–
Genres	science fiction literary fiction
Influences Ursula K. LeGuin
Influenced Ken MacLeod
www.iainbanks.net

Iain Banks (born on 16 February 1954 in Dunfermline, Fife) is a Scottish writer. He writes mainstream fiction under the name Iain Banks, and science fiction as Iain M. Banks, including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. In 2008, The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was a professional ice skater. Banks studied English, philosophy, and psychology at the University of Stirling.

Personal life[link]

After attending the University of Stirling, Banks moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.^[2]

Banks met his future wife Annie in London, before the 1984 release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1992.^[3] It was announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated.^[4] Annie died in 2009, two months after their divorce had become final.^[5] Banks currently lives in North Queensferry, a village on the north side of the Firth of Forth, with the published author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival Adèle Hartley.^[3] The two have been together since 2006.^[5]

In February 2007, Banks sold his extensive car collection, including a 3.2 litre Porsche Boxster, a Porsche 911 Turbo, a 3.8 litre Jaguar Mark II, a 5 litre BMW M5 and a daily use diesel Land Rover Defender whose power he had boosted by about 50%. Banks traded all of the vehicles for a Lexus RX 400h hybrid - since replaced by a diesel Toyota Yaris - and vowed in the future to fly only in emergencies.^[6]

Initially Banks was reluctant to use the internet or email, although he liked some PC computer games, including Civilization which provided minor inspiration for his stories. Now, however, he uses the internet and email extensively. His work computer is a PC not connected to the internet. Next to it is an internet-enabled computer used for research and email.^[7]

Politics[link]

A strong awareness of history shows in his writings. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.^[8]

In late 2004, Banks was a member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns."^[9] He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Banks is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society (see Quotations) and a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland. He has spoken out in support of Scottish independence.^[10]

Names[link]

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in Britain on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his middle name, and it may be considered official by adoption. It was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication; his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor also raised concerns about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor romantic novelist in P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels. Following his three mainstream novels, his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M'.

Bibliography[link]

Fiction as Iain Banks[link]

• The Wasp Factory (1984)
• Walking on Glass (1985)
• The Bridge (1986)
• Espedair Street (1987) – adapted for BBC radio in 1998 (directed by Dave Batchelor).
• Canal Dreams (1989)
• The Crow Road (1992) – adapted for BBC TV in 1996 (directed by Gavin Millar).
• Complicity (1993) – filmed in 2000 (directed by Gavin Millar), retitled Retribution for its US DVD/video release.
• Whit (1995)
• A Song of Stone (1997)
• The Business (1999)
• Dead Air (2002)
• The Steep Approach to Garbadale (2007)
• Transition (2009) - published in the U.S.A. as Iain M. Banks
• Stonemouth (2012)

Science fiction as Iain M. Banks[link]

Novels[link]

[edit] The Culture novels

• Consider Phlebas (1987)
• The Player of Games (1988)
• Use of Weapons (1990)
• Excession (1996)
• Inversions (1998)
• Look to Windward (2000)
• Matter (2008)
• Surface Detail (2010)^[11]
• The Hydrogen Sonata (forthcoming 2012)

Other novels[link]

• Against a Dark Background (1993)
• Feersum Endjinn (1994)
• The Algebraist (2004)

Short fiction collections[link]

• The State of the Art (1991)
  • Includes three short works set in the Culture universe. It also includes works of fiction more characteristic of Banks's writing published as Iain Banks.
• The Spheres (Birmingham Science Fiction Group, 2010)
  • Includes 'The Spheres', excised from the original draft of Transition; and 'The Secret Courtyard', excised from Matter. Limited edition of 500, to mark Novacon 40.

Non-fiction[link]

• Raw Spirit (2003) (a travelogue of Scotland and its whisky distilleries)

Introductions[link]

Banks has written a number of introductions for works by other writers including:

• Viriconium (1988) by M. John Harrison, the Unwin edition, ISBN 0-04-440245-7.
• The Adventures of Luther Arkwright: Book 3, Götterdämmerung (1989) by Bryan Talbot from Proutt Publishing, ISBN 0-907865-03-8.
• The Orbit Science Fiction Yearbook Three (1990) edited by David S. Garnett, ISBN 0-07-088833-7.
• The Human Front (2001) by Ken MacLeod, the PS Publishing edition, ISBN 1-902880-30-7 (hbk) and ISBN 1-902880-31-5 (pbk).

Contributions[link]

Banks has contributed to a number of publications, including:

• New Writing Scotland (1983) ISBN 0-9502629-4-3. A poem of Banks's called 041. The title comes from the old subscriber trunk dialling code for Glasgow.
• The Edinburgh Pub Guide (1989) edited by James Bethell, Polygon Press, ISBN 0-7486-6053-4. A review of The Green Tree.
• The Culture #4 (2001) contained the words from the photo story Forbidden Love that Banks wrote for Viz, but which they would not publish without a cut that he would not agree to. It was written (and photographed) at the 1989 Eastercon.
• Critical Wave #26 (1992). After the death of Isaac Asimov, the fanzine contained appreciations of him by many SF authors including Banks.
• New Scientist #1865, pp38–9 (1993) has an article by Banks called Escape from the Laws of Physics about the science (or lack of it) in science fiction. Banks has also had a number of letters published in the magazine, for example, one on creationism in November 2005.^[12]
• The Observer (7 February 1999). A review of the Tower Restaurant on the top floor at the Museum of Scotland in the Life magazine section.
• A Sense of Belonging to Scotland (2002), edited by Andy Hall, The Mercat Press, ISBN 1-84183-036-4. Banks contributed a few paragraphs to this book about the "favourite places of Scottish celebrities". His chosen place was the Forth Bridge.
• The Guardian (2 November 2002). A review of the M. John Harrison novel Light headlined Into the 10th Dimension.
• Novacon 36 Programme Book (2006). A fictional remembrance of Ken MacLeod (the guest of honour for the convention).

He was a semi-regular music reviewer for Marc Riley's Rocket Science radio show on BBC 6 Music. He was the subject of a South Bank Show television programme broadcast on 16 November 1997, subtitled The Strange Worlds of Iain Banks, which concentrated on his mainstream work. The Curse Of Iain Banks, a play written by Maxton Walker, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999, with Banks contributing as a voice on tape. He has appeared on the BBC's political discussion television programme Question Time.

At the beginning of 2006 Banks captained a team of writers to victory in a special series of University Challenge on BBC2, beating a team of actors 185-105 (1 January 2006), and then the 'news' team 190-45 in the final (2 January 2006). He also won an edition of Celebrity Mastermind, taking "Malt whisky & the distilleries of Scotland" as his specialist subject on BBC1 on 2 January 2006.

On 21 May 2011, Banks featured on the BBC Radio 4 programme 'Saturday Live' on which he chose his 'inheritance tracks': a piece of music he had 'inherited' and one he would want to pass on. He chose firstly Shenandoah sung by Paul Robeson, which reminded him of time spent as a child living by the Rivers Forth and Clyde, a girl he loved from afar as a teenager, and his father's funeral the previous year. To pass on, he chose For a Dancer by Jackson Browne, with its line 'In the end there is one dance you'll do alone'. Firmly restating his atheism, Banks spoke of his belief that death is an important 'part of the totality of life', to be treated realistically, not feared.^[13]

Quotes[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Iain Banks

• "I write because I love it, I enjoy it, I've spent most of my life trying to do it better, and I can make a living from it: beats a day job."^[14]
• "The Universe says simply, but with every possible complication, 'Existence' and it neither pressures us nor draws us out, except as we allow. It all boils down to nothing, and where we have the means and will to fix our reference within that flux, then there we are. Let me be part of that outrageous chaos… and I am."^[15]
• "In all the human societies we have ever reviewed, in every age and in every state, there has seldom if ever been a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this fact; there is never a scarcity of idiots." (Use of Weapons)
• (CNN: Would you like to live in the Culture?)

  IMB: "Good grief yes, heck, yeah, oh it's my secular heaven … Yes, I would, absolutely … I haven't done a study and taken lots of replies across a cross-section of humanity to find out what would be their personal utopia. It's mine, I thought of it, and I'm going home with it – absolutely, it's great."^[16]

• IMB: 'You don't write space opera in a vacuum!' -- Cheltenham Literature Festival, quoted at Ansible^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Iain Banks at Contemporary Writers
• Iain Banks at the Internet Book List
• Iain Banks at the Internet Movie Database
• Iain M. Banks at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Interviews[link]

• Interview on drug glands, moon landings and the future of humanity. With CNN at Lincoln Book Festival 2008. With video.
• Two curmudgeons for the price of one, Interview at The Australian Feb 2008
• Interview at Wells Literature Festival 2006
• Spike Magazine Interview
• Interview
• BBC Five Live interview on whisky, the creative process and The Steep Approach to Garbadale
• Iain Banks - Why I write (Guardian Unlimited interview)
• Trinity College Dublin Alternate Magazine Interview (1997)
• Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone interviews Iain Banks, one of his favourite authors.
• Sci-Fi Writer Iain Banks Talks Surface Detail’s Hell, Creationist Heresy