Cancer allows author Banks to ditch his carbon concerns
Stricken writer buys BMW as he sets aside footprint issues to make most of his final months
SIX years ago self-confessed “petrol head” Iain Banks turned his back on the cars he loved in a bid to do his bit for the planet.
Now with the for thright humour shown since telling the world in April he is dying of cancer, the author has revealed that he has treated himself to a BMW M5 because death will cut his carbon footprint.
The best-selling writer said he intends to drive the second-hand sports saloon, which is powered by a V10 engine “with 500 of your Earth horsepowers” and is capable of 0-62mph in about five seconds, around the Highlands.
But Banks, who is considering a course of chemotherapy for his gall bladder cancer, admitted his actions may leave behind a bigger carbon footprint than he had planned.
Of his new car, he said: “In the light of my recent bad news, I decided that – as it looked like I was going to be saving on the next 20/30 years of personal carbon output – I could indulge myself a bit.
“Hence flying to Venice. And also hence, even before we [he and wife Adele] got married, buying a six-year-old BMW M5.
“An M5 V10 with 500 of your Earth horsepowers.
“So I am back to scudding round the Highland roads again with a big grin on my fizzog (well, when I can grin, and the accelera tion/braking f orce isn’t distorting my face like somebody taking part in an early Nasa rocket sled experiment). Got heated leather seats, too.”
Banks who previously sold his collection of “flash” cars due to concerns about their impact on the environment, has written on his blog that he has bought a new car to help lift his mood.
He also said that, as well as staying on Barra for a time, he is considering chemotherapy but “if it wipes me out each time, I shan’t be persevering.”
Banks, 59, is now putting the finishing touches to his new book The Quarry, which he expects to be his final work and is due to be published on June 20.
In a medical update, Banks said his bilirubin [found in bile] level continued to fall, adding: “I have an appointment for a CT scan at the end of the month.”
“If my bilirubin is below 50 – and if the tumours have behaved themselves – then chemotherapy will be an option.”
The author, who counts The Crow Road, The Wasp Factory and several acclaimed science- fiction novels among his vast body of work, added: “If the scan shows the tumours have been over-enthusiastic during the last couple of months, then – as I understand it – chemo would be pointless.
“Assuming it is an option, I’ll probably try chemo and see how I react, but if it wipes me out each time, I shan’t be persevering.”
Banks’s website, set up following the announcement of his illness, now includes more than 190 pages of messages of support and tributes.
The writer said he has read 60 of them and is “still knocked out by the love and the depth of feeling coming from so many people; thank you, all of you.”
He added: “I want to say thank you to all of you for your messages, your memories, your wit, your sympathy and your ki nd, supportive thoughts.
“It means a lot, almost more than I can say, and – whatever type or size of screen I read the comments on – I come away from the computer, laptop, iPad or phone with a happy smile on my face.”
Banks said he had written “basically a fan letter to Alasdair Gray a couple of weeks ago, telling him how much his work has meant to me” and has sent another to Michael John Harrison, an English science-fiction author and critic who writes as M John Harrison.
“Doing that made me feel good too,” Banks said.