Iain Banks is an author. He writes regular novels (with a dark and sometimes disgusting slant) and
science fiction novels (with a lighter although still quite dark slant). He always keeps a sense of humour in his writing, which helps quite a bit with some of the more disturbing parts of his imagination (cf,
The Wasp Factory or
Complicity). Mr. Banks is from
Edinburgh.
His SF writing is set in the utopian paradise (or is it?) of The Culture.