I was very sad to hear that one of my favorite writers is suffering from a terminal illness and soon to die.  Lain Banks or Lain M. Banks is one of the best living writers of the English language.  I first started reading his science fiction books and was soon immersed in his fantastic creation of the anarchist Culture society.  I soon discover that his also wrote regular fiction and read the incredible "The Wasp Factory".   He has an incredible mind and a fantastic ability to put words together.  This coupled with his disdain for much of religion and his grasp of the human mind make him a "must read" author.  While some of the best films and books in America have come from Cormac McCarthy, In the UK one can easily say that Lain Banks has been the UK's counterpart. 

KT - I think you mean Iain Banks!

I discreetly PM'd him a couple of hours ago, so he could change it - but I guess he didn't get my PM

I've never heard his name verbally and quite forget you Ukers don't spell words correctly.  Is is pronounce Ian.  Can one of you sound it out by its phonetics.

It's used mostly (exclusively) in Scotland and is pronounced the same as Ian. I have heard that it is the Gaelic equivalent of 'John' but SG may know more. 

Ok, here ya go:

 

Iain is the Scottish Gaelic relation of the Irish Gaelic Eoin  - meaning John - but each is distinct and not directly equivalent to each other.

 

Eoin pre-dates Iain,  and to make matters even more complicated, the former is pronounced as O-AN and the latter is pronounced just as you would expect - E-AN

 

Ian is the English or Scots version of Iain - note that Scottish Gaelic and Scots are different languages completely.

 

So, the chronology is EOIN>>>IAIN>>>IAN - and all 3 are in current use.

 

As for KT's version LAIN - I'm sorry, I've never heard of it, and I genuinely assumed it was a typo!

 

 

Sadly, Iain Banks has now passed on

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22835047

Like many, I enjoyed the Wasp Factory which I read in paperback maybe a year or two after publication. I haven't read all of the others but especially liked Walking on Glass which is actually three unrelated stories. One of the three is called Walking on Glass and conjures up a bleak barren atmosphere in which the 'hero' is desperate to escape some kind of hideous confinement that's driving him crazy. He can escape in either of two ways, by giving up free will or by correctly answering questions put to him by the senechal (a kind of warden).

 

I also liked Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games, the first two books in the SF Culture series, but have not read any of the Iain M. Banks books since.