The Wasp Factory

Iain M Banks has been one of my favourite authors for over 20 years. I'm pretty fond of Iain Banks too. The first book of his that I read was my brother's copy of 'The Wasp Factory'. It was a book unlike anything I had ever read before and left an indelible impression on me.

In 1988, like generations of Irish men before me I was working on the sites in London. I was living with a friend in a small bedsit in Whitechapel. We lived a quiet life. The high point of each week was a curry with some friends from Galway in a local Indian Restaurant where the only person who spoke English was the owner's 12 year old son followed by a couple of pints in the Lord Rodney's Head.

My only other indulgence was feeding my science fiction habit. I used to stop at the Fantasy Inn (below the Book Inn, if I remember correctly) on my way home for my weekly copy of 2000AD. I would also check the shelves for new titles to covet, and occasionally purchase.

So there I was, still in my crap cement encrusted work clothes, runners held together with duct tape. I hadn't cut my hair in over a year or trimmed my beard in 4 months or so. My reverie was interrupted by someone asking me if I wanted to meet Iain Banks who had just had his first science fiction novel published, Consider Phlebas. The name meant nothing to me and he offered up the fact that Mr Banks had previously written The Wasp Factory. My response, to my everlasting regret and embarrassment was to grunt something like 'weird book' and decline the offer. Only then did I look up and notice that the only other person in the room was standing just a few feet away waiting to be introduced. He must have heard me. I left as soon as I could.

Sometime later my brother bought Consider Phlebas and I loved it. I've read every one of Iain Banks' Science Fiction books since, and most of his literary fiction too. I'm devastated that there will be no more Culture novels. For my money the Culture is the greatest utopian society ever created and if Contact or Special Circumstances are reading this I'm ready to go.

Strangely enough Consider Phlebas is almost my perfect book. I've read it many times and each time it's like reading a new book. For some reason I can never remember the plot, characters or anything about the book. I can remember really enjoying it, but that's about it. When I read it there's no slow dawning realisation of the 'Oh yeah, that's the bit where...'

I know I'll be re-reading Iain Banks for the rest of my life. I may never read Feersum Endjinn again, but I can always read Consider Phlebas for the first time. Again.

The picture is of a wasp's nest found in the kid's playhouse on the morning of Iain Bank's death. They're such beautiful objects I almost felt bad about crushing it with the queen (I hope) inside. Time to get a few new Waspinators I think.