Thanks to Margaret Atwood and her plans to develop a remote book signing device, we now know that publicity tours are not among many authors' favourite things. In an interview with Salon, Scottish author Iain Banks puts forward his case for not travelling abroad to promote his new novel.
At the moment I don't have a passport. When the Iraq war started, I took a pair of very large scissors to my passport and sent it to the prime minister, Tony Blair, to express my shame at the British being involved in this unnecessary, immoral and illegal war. So I really have to wait until Blair goes. There's something very stubborn and pigheaded and stupid about me, it's almost like self-harm - it'll do no real good whatsoever, but it just makes me feel better, makes me feel like I've done something, made some sort of sacrifice, to protest the war.
It must have come as a blow to Banks's publicity agent – and indeed the author's chances of enjoying a foreign holiday - when Mr Blair announced in September that he intended to win and serve out a third prime ministerial term. Perhaps only Banks's fellow Scot Gordon Brown can now set him free to fly.
