Iain Banks has long been a fan of videogames, even going so far to work them into his fiction, especially his SF work as Iain M. Banks. But when readers started wondering why he wouldn't deliver a novel by the end of the year, he 'fessed up the Independent: for the first time, he missed his deadline thanks to a serious addiction to videogames - and one in particular from the fiendish mind of Sid Meier.

"It's all because I became a serial addict of the computer game 'Civilisation'" Said Banks, "I played it for three months and then realised I hadn't done any work. In the end, I had to delete all the saved files and smash the CD. It is very unprofessional of me. I had to ask for an extension for the first time, which made me feel just like I was a student again."

I can think of several people who are ohsoclose to using that particular excuse for not writing, that's for sure...