The small village of North Queensferry is not used to being thrust into the spotlight. Once the first port of call for those travelling across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh to Fife, the village was best known for the spectacular views it offers of the Forth Bridges which dominate its horizon. In June this year, all that changed. People began to talk about North Queensferry not because of where it was, but rather who lived there.

One of its residents had landed a plum promotion at work. "A nice enough chap, that Mr Brown," the locals said. Kept himself to himself. Always attended the Kirk on Sundays. He deserved his new job. After all, he'd been waiting long enough to get it.

While the villagers themselves carried on as if having a Prime Minister living nearby was perfectly normal, some of the more hysterical aspects of the London press began to question whether living in such a small coastal community was a potential security issue. Surely it could be only be a matter of time before Al-Qaeda launched an attack on Fife.

Iain Banks, another notable North Queensferry resident, was seemingly unfazed by this prospect when I met him at his home a few weeks after Mr Brown's promotion, despite living only a few hundred yards down the road from the new Prime Minister. There were no guard dogs patrolling the grounds, not even a solitary heavy standing by the front door. It seems acclaimed novelists are just that bit more relaxed when it comes to these sort of things.

Well known for his socialist beliefs, you can be sure that Banks won't be inviting his neighbour round for dinner any time soon. “I think he is slightly more left-wing at heart, and although he did vote for the Iraq war, he didn't have the direct responsibility for it that Blair did. But I could never vote for him,” he states.

Like many Scots, Banks was once a proud Labour supporter, but found himself disillusioned with Tony Blair and his new ideals. “Before it became 'new' Labour, they were the only party I ever voted for at any election,” he observes. Banks’s political affiliations have since altered: he details how he voted SSP and SNP in the Scottish elections. "I've voted SNP in the past," he says, "not because of the nationalist thing, but because they have the more left-wing policies. I wish them well.” Banks does draw the line somewhere, however, noting that “It’s almost dangerous when one party has been in power for too long, but then that doesn't mean I'd be happy for them to be kicked out and replaced with the Tories! I would far rather see Labour remain in power than Cameron get in, unless of course it happens that the Tories actually shift to the left of Labour!”

With his strong convictions, you might be forgiven for wondering why Banks hasn't been dominating the airwaves in recent years, protesting against Blair ‘n’ Brown. “I've already got an opportunity, or a soapbox, to speak to the public with my novels.” he explains. “I think it might take something away from the books if I started to express my opinions in public all the time.” He did however cut his passport up and post it to 10 Downing Street, in protest at the invasion of Iraq.

Politics may be close to his heart, but writing is Banks's true passion. Born Iain Menzies Banks in 1954, the son of an Admiralty officer and a professional ice skater, he was raised in North Queensferry and Greenock. He studied English, Philosophy and Psychology at Stirling University, subjects he chose principally to help his career as a writer. Indeed, the human psyche, especially its darker elements, is something into which Banks regularly delves in his books.

He first came to attention in 1984 upon the publication of his debut novel The Wasp Factory, which caused much consternation at the time due to its graphic depiction of violence. It is widely acclaimed today: The Independent listed it as one of Best 100 novels of the 20th century.

Since his debut, Banks has produced over twenty works, at a rate of almost one per year, alternating between mainstream fiction and science fiction novels. His productivity, compared with some other authors, is positively heroic. Before I meet him, Banks had been adding the finishing touches to the first draft of his forthcoming science fiction novel, provisionally titled Matter, due out in February next year. This is at a time when his latest mainstream novel, The Steep Approach to Garbadale, has only been on the bookshop shelves a matter of weeks. He laughs off his tag as the hardest working man in literature. “I don't write anything else, I mean don't write reviews or such like. I just do what I love most. I don't treat writing as a day job as such, but you know if I did write book reviews or the occasional article that would take away time from my writing. I was originally thinking of cutting back to one book every two years, but I got bored too quickly.”

This process of alternating genres and adopting the nom de plume "Iain M Banks"—the world's most transparent pseudonym—has resulted in him being seen as two completely separate authors by fans and critics alike. Banks himself makes no distinction between his genres: “I see them both as novels; I mean they all have plots, characters, ideas etc. It’s the same process that creates both of them. It’s a bit like being a carpenter, in that one day you make a table, and the next day you make a chair. You use the same tools to make them, and there's no real distinction.”

Having covered so many bases over the course of his writing career, from religious cults to the grip of alcohol on society, are there any burning issues he has yet to cover? “The way that torture has become almost accepted by these neo-con nutters, and the general loosening of morality, that does worry me. I have had one idea, that might see the light of day, about tackling that, but whether that gets into the next novel or not I don't know, as it’s so far away. I suppose as well the illegality of the Iraq war. Extraordinary rendition, and our governments slowly sliding to becoming more authoritarian. But that’s less a burning issue, it’s more why isn't anything being done about it?”

One issue that Banks most definitely feels strongly about is that of global warming. So much so that in February this year Banks sold his entire collection of cars—which included a Mark II Jaguar, a Porsche 911, and a BMW M5 series—and settled for a diesel Toyota Yaris. For a committed petrol head, this was a bold step. Banks insists this move was down to genuine eco concerns, and not just the rising price of petrol. “It was more down to reading New Scientist for the past thirty years. But yeah, it hurt. I mean, I love driving!”

This commendable action was deplored by Jeremy Clarkson, who bemoaned that it was a shame that Banks had “succumbed to the propaganda of the hippies and the communists.” Banks, however, is unconcerned. “I quite like Clarkson as a presenter, but then he is to the right of Attila the Hun politically. I mean the thing is, it’s not propaganda, its something that over 90 per cent of the world's scientists accept is happening. The numbers of scientists on the other side, that aren't in the pay of major oil companies, is very small. I mean I would love nothing more than to be proved wrong, I mean I would go straight out and buy a new Porsche 911!”

With that said, I bid him goodbye, and begin my journey home – by train, naturally. I am left with an impression that, not only is Iain Banks one of the country's most consistent and compelling authors of the past few decades, but he is a man who is never afraid to stand up for what he believes in. A few doors up the road, Mr Brown is probably asking himself why he can't do the same.