Showing the frank attitude to mortality that his fans have come to expect, Banks said he had started driving "flash cars" again in light of his illness: "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."
Banks revealed that he has bought a BMW M5 V10 with 500 horsepower, and will be "back to scudding round the Highland roads again with a big grin on my fizzog (well, when I can grin, and the acceleration/braking force isn’t distorting my face like somebody taking part in an early NASA rocket sled experiment)."
Telegraph 21 may. R.I.P