Sebastian Faulks is one of Britain’s most acclaimed and best loved novelists. His books include Human Traces, Engleby, A Possible Life, Where My Heart Used to Beat and Birdsong. He worked as a teacher, then as journalist for the Telegraph and Independent newspapers before taking up writing full time in 1991.

His new book, Fires Which Burned Brightly, is what he calls ‘a memoir without the boring bits’. Its ten essays cover different topics that have been of passionate interest to him, including wine, America, psychiatry and research.

Faulks is president of the Authors Cricket Club and chairs the Charlotte Aitken Trust, a literary charity. For five years he worked on the Government Advisory Group on the commemoration of the First World War and wrote the narrative for the Somme ceremony of 2016.

He has loved Sri Lanka since he first visited on a cricket tour in 1981.

Top Titles

• Birdsong (1993)
• Human Traces (2005)
• Engleby (2007)
• A Possible Life (2012)
• Where My Heart Used to Beat (2016)
• Fires Which Burned Brightly (2025)