The Wasp Factory

London: Macmillan, (1984). First edition, 1st impression. 8vo. 184 pp. Original mahogany paper-covered boards, stamped in gold, in original unclipped (£7.95) dust-jacket. Almost as-new. Some faint handling wear to jacket. Book shows light toning to page edges, spine ends curled and edges tips lightly touched. Signed by the author on the title page.

Dust Jacket: Fine

Hardcover: Fine

“The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1984. Before the publication of The Wasp Factory, Banks had written several science fiction novels that had not been accepted for publication. Banks decided to try a more mainstream novel in the hopes that it would be more readily accepted, and wrote about a psychopathic teenager living on a remote Scottish island. According to Banks, this allowed him to treat the story as something resembling science fiction – the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien. Following the success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full-time.”