THE wife of author Iain Banks has written a moving message of thanks to the thousands of readers who have responded to the writer's revelation that he has only months to live.

Adele Hartley, who signed her message as "chief widow-in-waiting", was responding to the outpouring of grief and support after Banks said he had advanced cancer of the gall bladder, liver and lymph nodes.

The couple married on Good Friday in a humanist ceremony at the Inverlochy Hotel, near Fort William.

The new Mrs Banks said her husband "roared with laughter" at some messages but was deeply moved by some of the notes from the public since news of his condition broke last week.

On the author's online guestbook, she writes: "Thank you for showing my gorgeous, wonderful husband how much he is loved and appreciated beyond his own front door."

She adds that Banks is reading "every single comment" written on the online guestbook established after his statement about his health last week.

Mrs Banks said reading the messages and notes had been a "pleasurable task", and that he will post an update on his health soon.

Banks, 59, is now putting the finishing touches to his new book The Quarry, which he expects to be his final work. It will be published by Little Brown on June 20.

His wife, 42, said she wanted to thank everyone who wrote in the guestbook, now running to more than 100 pages. She wrote: "To everybody who has shared news of their own encounter with this disease we wish that was something we didn't have in common but we know and appreciate just how much it takes to spare a little emotional empathy for a fellow sufferer.

"Iain is genuinely delighted some of you got better news than we did."

She says it has been "huge fun" to read about relationships begun through mutual love of Banks's writing and to read about children "who don't know yet know what stack of books is waiting for them when parents can be reasonably sure they won't try any of the stunts from The Wasp Factory".

She adds: "It's amazing to hear all the kind and sympathetic words – from Laos to Hong Kong to Uruguay to India to Dunedin to Dunfermline.

"It is just extraordinarily touching to have you all take the time to speak to Iain. He has roared with laughter and been deeply moved by the love, kindness and wit."

Banks was born in Dunfermline. His first novel, the Wasp Factory, was published in 1984.

He says he plans to spend as much time as he has left seeing friends and relatives and visiting places that mean a lot to him and his partner.