Sebastian Faulks

I found it extremely difficult to get going as a novelist. When I wrote A Trick of the Light, I'd already written two novels and I thought if I can't get this one published, that's it. I've given it my best shot, but it's over. However, it wasn't until my next book, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, that I began to feel confident. In a way it seemed perverse that I should write a book set in a foreign country in a different period, which had a female main character, but actually it was very liberating for me. -- Sebastian Faulks

I wrote it [Birdsong] very fast - in six months - and felt absolutely fired up while I was doing it. I'd work for about three or four hours in the morning and then I'd go off in the afternoon to do some research at the Imperial War Museum. Sometimes I was only just keeping ahead of myself. But every time I stepped into the void, something just seemed to materialise under my foot. -- Sebastian Faulks

English novelist Sebastian Faulks (1953- ) used to be the literary editor for The Independent. He is the author of several novels, is best known for his French trilogy, especially the second in the trilogy, his fourth novel Birdsong.

In his new introduction for the paperback edition of Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks comments that sales of 9,000 were considered not bad for an intense book on a difficult subject.

Birdsong came 13th in the BBC The Big Read which aimed to find Britain's favourite books, has sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide.

Birdsong is the second book in a trilogy of novels by Sebastian Faulks, consisting of The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. The books in what are known as the French trilogy are set in France and linked through location, history and several minor characters. The novels in the French trilogy are not in chronolgical order.

The Girl at the Lion d'Or is a tragic love story set in the 1930s, the time between the two wars. War with Germany is anticipated and memories of the First World War are still fresh. A mystery girl arrives in a hotel in a small French provencial town. She has a dark past she wishes to hide. [see BCID 5600460]

Birdsong is set in the mud and blood and senseless slaughter of the First World War, it is also set in the late 1970s, when Elizabeth, granddaughter of one of the combatants, attempts to find out more about her grandfather's experiences in World War I. [see BCID 5528726 and BCID 5582295]

Other novels by Sebastian Faulks include A Fool's Alphabet (BCID 5540839) and On Green Dolphin Street (BCID 5804633).

Sebastian Faulks regularly appears as the captain on the BBC Radio 4 literary quiz The Write Stuff.

Copies of novels by Sebastian Faulks have been registered as BookCrossing books.

BookCrossing books are released into the wild and their progress tracked through the Internet via a unique Book Crossing ID (BCID).


Literature
(c) Keith Parkins 2007-2008 -- February 2008 rev 2