I Have Got to Read the Works Of Iain Banks

If this line from one of his last interviews is any indication of his mastery of the English language:

He learned of Thatcher's death – which would have kept his own news off the front pages had it been the same day, he mused – on his honeymoon after inviting his partner, Adele Hartley, "to do me the honour of becoming my widow".

"Then I realised I was celebrating the death of a human being, no matter how vile she was. And there was nothing symbolic about her death, because her baleful influence on British politics remains undiminished. Squeeze practically any Tory, any Blairite, and any Lib Dem of the Orange Book persuasion, and it's the same poisonous Thatcherite pus that comes oozing out of all of them."

(Emphasis mine)

I have to check out his work.