Iain Banks's Blog

Stonemouth is published tomorrow, and to whet your appetite, here's a round-up of what the critics have been saying so far:

'There is more than a shade of Pip and Estella in Stewart and Ellie, and to create an emotionally satisfying while intellectually convincing ending is a rare achievement' Guardian

'The storytelling is very, very smooth.. One of his best' Evening Standard

'Addictive, funny, and brilliantly observed' Daily Mail

'This is Banks at his waspish, intelligent, nuanced best. His fans will give thanks' Scotland on Sunday

'…it's tender, and funny, and heart-stopping-ly exciting. I finished it on a high that gave way rapidly to bereavement – as if I were eight again and had just finished Five Go to Smuggler's Top' The Times

'Jocular, gritty and smart-alecky, Stonemouth is very Iain Banks' Sunday Independent, Ireland

Iain will be out and about signing books in the next few weeks, so check the appearances section for details.

Thanks to everyone who entered our competition to win a signed proof of Iain Banks new novel Stonemouth. We had some great answers to why you'd like to review it (as well as some helpful spelling advice on the word 'receive':-)). And now, without further ado, the winners are . . .

Seth DeHaan

Gordon Ritchie

Jason Cordes

Louise Hunter

Vanessa Round

Congratulations! Your proofs are on their way to you as we speak - looking forward to hearing what you think!

Spring is nearly here, and with it comes the much-anticipated Stonemouth - Iain Banks' new novel set in an estuary town in far-north Scotland. To support the release of the novel, Iain will be appearing at a number of events around the UK, including:

The Stratford-Upon-Avon Literary Festival - Wednesday 25th April
Key Words Dinner & Conversation - Friday 27th April
University of East Anglia Literary Festival - Tuesday 1st May

For details, please see the appearances section of the website.

[Thank you to David H from The Banksonian for the heads up on these three.]

Stonemouth. Home to sea fog. Gangsters. Lost love. And a suspension bridge . . .

Iain Banks returns in April with his new novel - a dark, fast-paced and brilliant thriller that deals with adolescence, love and vengeance, and the perils of coming home.

We're very excited about it, and with less than three months to wait until Stonemouth is released on the 5th of April, the countdown to publication has well and truly begun. We have a limited amount of signed and numbered reading copies of Stonemouth to giveaway to 5 readers - all we ask in return is for the lucky recipients to let us know what they think of it once they've read it!

To win one of the copies, just fill in the form below and tell us why you'd like to recieve a proof copy. We'll choose the 5 best ones and put the winners names on the website. Once the winners have written their review, they can just send it to us and we'll post them here. The review can be as long or short as you like, though the more in depth the better. No spoilers though! For terms and conditions see here.

Good luck!

Name:




Email address:




Why you'd like to receive
a proof copy of Stonemouth:
(250 characters or less)

After so many of you voted to see an Iain M Banks title on the World Book Night 2012 list, we were thrilled when it actually happened and The Player of Games made the final list of twenty-five titles.

World Book Night 2012 will be held on April 23, and they're looking for 20,000 'givers' to volunteer. These givers will have the opportunity to give away twenty-four copies each as a way to share their enthusiasm for The Player of Games.

Share your love for Iain's books and The Player of Games by registering as a giver on the World Book Night website.

Iain M. Banks is interviewed by David Conyers for the feature piece in the latest issue of Albedo One, Ireland's longest-running magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.

For more information, or to order a copy of the magazine, head to the Albedo One website.

This Sunday, 27th of November, tune in at 12pm to hear Iain Banks on BBC Radio 6 Music as he takes listeners through an hour of music as part of the BBC 6 Paperback Writers programme.

More information can be found on the BBC Radio 6 website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017pncn

The Wasp Factory was featured on Jim Naughtie's Radio 4 Book Club last week, and Jim has written about his conversation with Iain on his Book Club blog.

"The book is a picture of disturbance, a kind of punk's-eye view of the world, which is a place of gothic horror and badness. Yet, as Iain told us, "Frank thinks he is relatively normal - it's as simple as that."

For the full report, see here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/201...

The shortlists for the 2011 Galaxy Awards have been announced today, and The Player of Games, read by Peter Kenny, has been nominated for the Audible.co.uk Best Audiobook Award.

This year's awards will be announced on 4th November. In the meantime, The Player of Games is available as an audio download from Audible.co.uk, Audible.com (for US-based listeners) and the iTunes store.

Iain has asked us to pass on the following message:

"I'm patron of a local charity for victims of abuse called Safe Space. They've just brought out a booklet of writing by some of the survivors and I've written the foreword. The booklet costs £5.00, is called 'The Hope of Diamonds' and the address of Safe Space is St Margaret's House, 9 St Margaret's Street, Dunfermlines, KY12 7PE, or: contact@safe-space.co.uk."

More information about the charity can be found at their website: www.safe-space.co.uk.