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Yesterday brought the saddest of news. Iain M Banks, author of The Wasp Factory and creator of the Culture novels, has passed away shortly after being given a terminal diagnosis of advanced gall bladder cancer. He was 59, which is no age at all, really.
I was lucky enough to meet him a few times, at Newcon, where I ran into him outside the toilets and managed to blether something about how much I’d loved Excession, and at Forbidden Planet, where I mentioned Bristolcon to him and he took a handful of flyers from me and handed them out to everyone who got a book signed, urging them to come along (he wasn’t even a guest, and I didn’t ask him to, he just did it. That’s the kind of guy he was.)
The last time was a Q and A at Waterstones in Bristol, where he talked for an hour and answered questions with equal amounts of patience, charm and mischievous good humour. He was a gent, a connoisseur of fine whisky, someone who managed to cleverly bridge the divide between SF and mainstream literature without pissing anyone off, and he will be hugely missed by people on both sides of the fence.
RIP Banksy. Raising a wee dram to you, wherever you are.
Joanne Hall 
A very sad day indeed. Another great writer passes and at such a young age, terribly sad. I wish I had met him, he did seem by all accounts to be a thoroughly decent human being as well as a prodigious talent. 😦
Reblogged this on Sophie E Tallis and commented:
A terribly sad day, as another great writer passes. A prodigious talent and by all accounts, a thoroughly lovely chap. Iain M Banks will be greatly missed by many. 😦
Lucky you, I wish I’d had the chance to meet him. As you say, he’ll be hugely missed.
I only had the privilege of meeting Iain Banks once in person, but that was a memorable meeting, and each of his books I read was like meeting him again. I posted my tribute to him when he first announced he had terminal cancer on http://nyki-blatchley.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/iain-banks-tribute.html