IAIN BANKS INTERVIEWED BY WARREN SCOTT-MORROW

For the SF magazine Star Roots (issue 1) published in 1989. Includes his own brief version of his biography up to that date.

W S-M. Have you always been interested in sci-fi/fantasy and at what age did you start writing it?

I B. I'd date my interest in SF from early teens; maybe earlier. I started writing it when I was about 18 to 20.

W S-M. What inspired you to write in this genre and what was the first piece you ever wrote?

I B. Nothing specific. I liked the freedom SF offers and wanted to use it. The first SF (-ish) piece was a novel called TTR, written in 1972. It was set in the near future after a (non-nuclear) Sino-Soviet border war (the U.S. comes in on the side of China, and Mongolia - taken from the SU- is about to become the fifty-first state of the U.S.A., and re-named Mongoliana). A 400,000 word satire (I suppose), it was much influenced by both Catch 22 and John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar.

W S-M. Who, if anyone, would you consider as your major influences?

I B. Apart from the two works mentioned above, I’ve been influenced by Hunter S Thompson (through Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), John Sladek, M. John Harrison, Brian Aldiss, Graham Greene, Saul Bellow, T.S.Eliot, Kafka, Tolstoy, Jane Austen and even old Bill himself. And everything else I’ve read, heard or seen.

W S-M. Do you use a word processor or type your works?

I B. Amstrad PCW 8512.

W S-M. How many hours a day do you spend writing, how many drafts and how long to write a novel?

I B. 0 hours a day for months and months and months, then anything up to 16 a day for a couple of months. I used to do one draft but never did get anything published that way, so did two until I got the computer; drafts (as individual entities) are almost irrelevant now; let's say there's one draft followed by one to three half or quarter first-and a-bit drafts, culminating in an almost finished draft.

W S-M. Do you care what the critics think about your books?

I B. Not particularly.

W S-M. Do you imagine an ideal reader for them?

I B. Me.

W S-M. Is there anything particular about your writing that you don't enjoy or that you find a chore?

I B. Second drafts before I got the machine. Research in principle although I actually did some for the next book (Canal Dreams, due August-October), and didn't find it as painful as I thought it might be.

W S-M. In which countries are your books the most popular?

I B. They're most popular in Britain.

W.S-M. Which of your stories caused you the most difficulty in writing?

I B. The Bridge , mostly in the editing stage.

W S-M. Do you show your (pre-published) work to others and do you ever ask their advice?

I B. I used to, then I was working on a rather too tight schedule, but with CD I’ve started doing so again, and for a change I’m actually listening to what people say. Before that, with the published books. it's been my editor (James Hale) who's been the advice-giver. With him, I usually listen.

W S-M. Do you have any superstitions in connection with your writing?

I B. No, I’m an atheist; I don't have any superstitions.

W S-M. Are you continually observing life to consciously seek things which can be useful to use as a writer?

I B. No, I hardly ever take notes. I find it much easier just to make (almost) everything up. Of course I must be using personal experience at some remove, but it's from a fairly deep level, as a rule.

W S-M. Have you ever been totally stuck on any of your stories?

I B. No. The plan's there before I start, and any problems have usually been ironed out long before. Sometimes there are minor hold-ups when I realize I’ve written myself into a corner, but the more experienced I get the more minor and less annoying these become (the machine helps too; you can just go back and alter a previous chapter to square things up).

W S-M. Do people ever give you unpublished novels to peruse?

I B. Not if I can help it. I don't think I'm a very good judge, anyway. I hate being cruel (No; I hate being honest if I don't like something); and I’m a slow reader ,which means I have to take time off from trying to cut down the hundred-strong or so back-log of books I have on my shelves, waiting to be read.

W S-M. If you had to advise a young writer what would be the pitfalls which you would warn him against?

I B. Good grief. Read the relevant parts of The Writers' and Artists' Year book, keep writing (like anything else, the more you do it, the better you get), and if you love doing it anyway- regardless of whether you ever get published or not - don't get discouraged; any honest fiction publisher will tell you that 99.9% of the stuff sent to them is junk, though of course nobody ever believes their novel is anything other than a masterpiece.

W S-M. When will your next novel (Canal Dreams) be in the shops and, broadly, what will it be about?

I B. The centre character is a middle-aged lady Japanese cello-player. (No, honest).

W S-M. Do you consider your pure SF intrinsically different from your, may I say, fantasy type novels?

I B. What fantasy novels? Well, yes, the non-SF stuff I find it easier to be rather more experimental in. The SF has been and will continue to be - for the next couple of years anyway, and sporadically thereafter - concerned with The Culture. Disguisedly didactic, the stories'll have to be relatively conventional in form (though I’m going to try something a bit different with the next one, to be completed this summer).

W S-M. Do you have plans in the long-term to keep to both or will, in subsequent years, you ultimately stick with one or the other?

I B. I intend to alternate SF and non-SF novels year by year for the foreseeable future. Mind you, I can change my mind with distressing alacrity on things like this.

W S-M. What are your overall aims as an author?

I B. Oh hell; just to keep doing something I love and enjoy, and keep getting paid for it. I'd love to change the world as well, natch; writing novels isn't the most efficient way of doing that, but it's better than working for a living.

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IAIN BANKS BIOGRAPHY.

Born in Dunfermline Maternity Hospital on February 16th 1954. Father able-seaman in Admiralty (later became first officer. Now retired), mother exprofessional ice-skater. Only child, but both parents from large Scots families; numerous aunts and uncles and hordes of cousins. Family lived in North QueensFerry, Fife; the young Iain's bedroom window looked out to the Forth Bridge. In 1963 the family moved to Gourock, on the Clyde; some of the Banks tribe still live in NQF, others nearby.

Educated in North Queensferry and Gourock primary schools, Gourock and Greenock High Schools and Stirling University (1972-1975; ordinary degree in English along with philosophy and psychology. Was there when the Queen was insulted, but playing ping-pong at the time). Highlight of time at Stirling was undoubtedly spending a day on Sherrifmuir - along with 149 other students - as an extra in the final battle-scene of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. During vacations, worked in the Greenock area as hospital porter, estate worker, pier porter (catching the ropes of the Clyde steamers on Gourock pier, hauling up gangplanks; that sort of thing), road worker, dustman and gardener.

Hitch-hiked through Europe, Scandinavia and Morocco in 1975. Worked a year as a non-destructive testing technician for British Steel, spending some time at the Nigg Bay construction site (area helped inspire The Wasp Factory). Visited the U.S.A. in 1978; drove from Washington D .C. to Los Angeles and only went above 55 m.p.h. once. While in Washington, played front half of the Loch Ness monster in a benefit review to raise funds for the local puppet theatre. (No, I am not making any of this up)!

Returned to Scotland; spent six months working for IBM in Greenock; only really showed any dedication or zeal when trying to make sure that vital computer components urgently required in Capetown or Johannesburg went via interesting places like Reykjavik, Anchorage, Ulan Bator, Honolulu... Jobs got too hard to find in 1979, so moved to London to stay with some other Caledonian exiles. Found work. Got book published. Moved to Faversham, Kent, in 1984.

Started going to Science Fiction Conventions in 1986 (Mexicon 2) and haven’t looked back (or sober) since. So no change there.

Moved to Edinburgh in January 1988.

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Wasp Factory Macmillan 1984 / Futura 1985

Walking on Glass Macmillan 1985 / Futura 1986

The Bridge Macmillan 1986 / Pan 1987 / Futura 1989

Consider Phlebas Macmillan 1987 / Futura 1988

Espedair street Macmillan 1987 / Futura 1988

The Player of Games Macmillan 1988 / Futura 1989

Canal Dreams due to be published by Macmillan in 1989