Award-winning Scottish writer Iain Banks dies

Author Iain Banks has died aged 59 after a battle with gall bladder cancer, Sky News reported, citing family sources.


The Scottish award-winning writer had posted on his website in April that he was in the final stages of gall-bladder cancer and was unlikely to live beyond a year.


In a statement, his publisher Little, Brown Book Group said he was "an irreplaceable part of the literary world".


The statement said the author was "one of the country's best-loved novelists".


It added: "Iain Banks' ability to combine the most fertile of imaginations with his own highly distinctive brand of gothic humour made him unique."


In the last few weeks he had written a series of blogs about his health and feelings about life.


Much of what he had been through in his last year is also expected to have been put into the pages of his latest book - The Quarry - due out on June 20.


He is best known for books like The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, which was made into a TV series.


Writing under the name Iain M Banks, he also wrote a series of science fiction books.


He won a range of accolades for his science fiction and also a handful for his traditional novels.


In 2008, The Times named him as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.


He had been born in Dunfermline, Fife, in 1954, to a professional ice skater mother and naval officer father.


After growing up in the Greenock area, on the south bank of the Clyde estuary, he stayed in Scotland for his university years, at Stirling, before working at a range of jobs as his writing career took off.


As of March 2013, he had published 26 novels, several of which have been adapted for TV, radio and theatre.


He was involved in a range of political and social causes. He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, had spoken in favour of Scottish independence, and had written and spoken about Britain's involvement in the 2003 Iraq War and the situation in the Palestinian Territories.


He has been married twice. He met his first wife Annie in London before the release of his first book in 1984, but the couple separated in 2007.


The Scotsman newspaper reported in April that he had married his partner Adele Hartley, in a Humanist ceremony, after asking her to be his "widow".


The couple were then said to have taken a honeymoon in Italy.


Many fans reacted quickly to the news of his death on Twitter.


Among those who left tributes were bookshop Waterstones, who said: "Very sad to hear of Iain's passing this morning - a great Scottish writer who will be sadly missed."


Comedian and boradcaster John O'Farrell said: "So sad to hear of death of brilliant and charming Iain Banks. The Wasp Factory was the first book I finished and then immediately read again."


Comedian and writer Andrew Collins said: "Hands up who *hasn't* read The Wasp Factory? Exactly. Iain Banks touched a lot of people in his unfairly foreshortened life. RIP."


Scottish cyclist Chris Hoy said: "Rest in peace Iain Banks. Such sad news."