"It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that brought me back to Gallanach"
Greatest opening to any book ever - The Crow road.
I don't know how this is to other nationalities but no other writer has ever been able to capture the darkness of Scottish humour quite like Ian Banks. I did my English RPR paper on The wasp factory, The crow road and Consider Phlebas. Gained extra marks for pointing out the beauty of the scene where Frank kill his young cousin with a balloon as well as the brutal humour and thought that goes in to each death. No one ever wrote like this before and I don't know if anyone will ever match his works.
