Iain Banks has died at the age of 59, barely two months after announcing his terminal cancer. He’s been one of my favourite writers since I was about 15. He was a ferocious, consummate story-teller. I never met him, but somehow, the knowledge that his books will survive doesn’t shake the sadness of having lost one of the good guys:
“Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying.”
Simon Sylvester 