Author: Faulks, Sebastian

Memoirs

Published on 2 September 2025 by Cornerstone (Hutchinson Heinemann) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 352 pages
144 x 225 x 33 | 460g

‘A wise and heartfelt piece of writing’ THE TIMES’Witty’ INDEPENDENT’Wry and reflective . . . a soulful look at a life in words’ i PAPERA wonderful portrait of an age, and of a writer’ RORY STEWART, author of Politics on the EdgeUtterly fascinating’ DAVID KYNASTON, author of A Northern Wind’Shot through with the kind of depth and detail that can only come from a masterful writer finally turning his pen to his own life. Fresh, wise and finely-wrought’ ALICE WINN, author of In Memoriam As charming and funny in schoolboy episodes as he is thought-provoking in the darker environs of mental health, Sebastian Faulks is always resonant, civilised and sane’ MARK KNOPFLER ***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’s 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.

PRAISE FOR SEBASTIAN FAULKS’Faulks writes with great emotional authority’ SUNDAY TIMES’A prodigiously talented writer’ NEW YORK TIMES’Faulks is beyond doubt a master’ FINANCIAL TIMES’The most impressive novelist of his generation’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH