From The Scotsman:
Banking on a best-seller
For a whisky lover, it must be something of a dream job: to visit more than 100 distilleries, sample their wares and get paid for it.
But that’s exactly the assignment that best-selling author Iain Banks managed to land when publishers approached him to write a book about whisky.
The result is Raw Spirit, the North Queensferry-based writer’s first foray into non-fiction - and an extra stone in weight for the author.
Banks, who is a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, travelled around Scotland by car, plane, motorbike and ferry earlier this year. His odyssey to discover the contemporary meaning of whisky to the Scots included a two-week stay in Speyside and a week on Islay.
Apparently, the author of The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road enjoyed all his drams. But he let slip during a radio interview that he is particularly fond of Lagavulin - the giant of the Islay malts.
The brief was much envied by his whisky-loving friends who were very keen to aid his research.
Raw Spirit will be published by Century Books on November 4, priced £17.99, and is due to be launched at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society