Acclaimed author Iain Banks has died from cancer just two months after revealing he had the terminal illness.
Mr Banks, who was 59, had been suffering from terminal gall bladder cancer.
The author revealed the extent of his illness in April and said he was not expecting to live longer than a year.
The release of his last novel was brought forward after he made a request to his publishers. The Quarry chronicles the last few weeks of a man dying from terminal cancer.
In a statement, his publisher Little, Brown Book Group called Mr Banks “an irreplaceable part of the literary world” and said the author was “one of the country’s best-loved novelists”.
“Iain Banks’ ability to combine the most fertile of imaginations with his own highly distinctive brand of gothic humour made him unique,” it added.