REBUS creator Ian Rankin says that cancer-stricken writer Iain Banks is in good spirits despite his condition.
Rankin said on Twitter he had met Banks and his wife Adele.
He said his fellow writer, who recently announced he has months to live, was intending to read all his well-wishers' comments.
And he said Banks had joked about his appearance.
Rankin added: "Iain is spending some post-honeymoon time driving around Scotland.
"And, post-jaundice, looks (he says) a lot less like Grandpa Simpson."
He added that some photographs were taken of their meeting, "mostly, just a bunch of writers hanging out".
On his new blog this week, Banks wrote about marrying his partner Adele, his honeymoon in Venice and Paris, an emergency trip to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the "astounding" messages of support, love and encouragement from his many fans.
The writer of many acclaimed contemporary novels and science fiction books said he felt "treasured".
He said: "I feel loved, I feel I've done more than just pursue the craft I adore and make a living from it, and more than just fulfil the only real ambition I've ever had – of becoming a professional writer".
He said that the messages left on his webpage are "witty, poignant, beautiful, heartfelt, insightful, touching and just funny".
Banks, 59, is suffering from cancer of the gall bladder, liver, pancreas and some lymph nodes.
His latest book, The Quarry, which Banks says will be his last, will be published on June 20.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article