Stories set in the Culture in which Things Went Wrong tended to start with humans losing or forgetting or deliberately leaving behind their terminal. It was a conventional opening, the equivalent of straying off the path in the wild woods in one age, or a car breaking down at night on a lonely road in another.

Banks moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland living in Edinburgh and then Fife. In April 2012 Banks became the "Acting Honorary Non-Executive Figurehead President Elect pro tem (trainee)" of the Science Fiction Book Club based in London England. G.

In 2008 The Times named Banks in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Banks including the initial of his adopted middle name Menzies. Iain Banks (born on 16 February 1954) is a Scottish writer.