Three Chimneys

It's funny how long it can take you to process a bit of information, isn't it? When I first heard Iain Banks was ill, I was surprised, not least because he was relatively young. I watched the reaction on Twitter, I talked to a couple of people about it, and that was it. My only lasting thought was about all the books that he would have written, that I would never read.

And then when he died on June 9th, I was surprised again. I'd read he might live up to a year but in the end it was just a couple of months. Again, there was a lot of sadness on Twitter but this time I didn't really take it in.

And then, this evening, standing on Lancaster station, I saw these three chimneys, which put me in mind of his Banks' book 'Espedair Street'. I'm not sure how many of his books I'd read when that came out but in some ways it's my favourite, not least because my copy was signed by him.

The dedication read something like "To Fenner. This book should be turned up to 11. Iain Banks. PS Say Hi to Halo for me" and then there was a little drawing of an amp.

(The amp and the '11' refer to a scene from Spinal Tap and the "Halo" is Halo Jones, Alan Moore's comic book character after whom my band was named.)

Of course, you might think I'm being lazy - "The dedication read something like" - but, actually, looking for it this evening, it's the one book that's missing from my collection of all Iain Banks' books.