Sebastian Faulks: A Life in Writing

In Fires Which Burned Brightly, Faulks, a reluctant memoirist, offers readers a series of detailed snapshots from a life in progress.

They include a post-war rural childhood – ‘cold mutton and wet washing on a rack over the range’ – the booze-sodden heyday of Fleet Street and a career as one of the country’s most acclaimed novelists.

There are not one, but two daring escapes from boarding school; the delirium of a jetlagged American book tour; the writing of Birdsong in his brother’s house in 1992; and memorable trips across the channel to France. Politics, psychiatry and frustrated ventures into the world of entertainment are analysed with patience and rueful humour.

The book is driven by a desire ‘to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’ It ends with a tribute to Faulks’ parents and a sense of how his own generation was shaped by the disruptive power of war and its aftermath.

Sharply perceptive and alive with a generous wit, Fires Which Burned Brightly is a work of subtle yet profound intelligence and warmth. At this event, actors Freddie Fox, Jason Watkins and Gemma Whelan read an extract of the book.

Freddie Fox is best known for starring in HBO’s House of the Dragon, Hulu’s The Great and Apple TV’s Slow Horses. His film work includes Pride and The Riot Club.

Jason Watkins is a BAFTA-winning actor and one of the UK’s most prolific screen talents. He currently stars in The Game (Channel 5) and recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme and The Seagull at the Barbican.

Gemma Whelan is a British actor and comedian, acclaimed for her roles across film, TV and stage. She has appeared as Yara Greyjoy in Game of Thrones and has had roles in Killing Eve, Gentleman Jack and Emma.