Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks was born on 20 April 1953 and educated at Wellington College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was the first literary editor of The Independent and became deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday before leaving in 1991 to concentrate on writing. He has been a columnist for The Guardian (1992-8) and the Evening Standard (1997-9). He continues to contribute articles and reviews to a number of newspapers and magazines. He wrote and presented the Channel 4 Television series, Churchill's Secret Army, which was broadcast in 1999.

His best known work is the bestselling Birdsong (1993), the story of a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, and his harrowing experiences fighting in northern France during the First World War. The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives is a multiple biography of the lives of the artist Christopher Wood, airman Richard Hillary and spy Jeremy Wolfenden.

His fifth novel, Charlotte Gray (1998), completes the loose trilogy of books about France with an account of the adventures of a young Scottish woman who becomes involved with the French resistance during the Second World War. A film adaptation of the novel, starring Cate Blanchett, was first screened in 2002. His next novel, On Green Dolphin Street (2001), is a love story set against the backdrop of the Cold War. Human Traces, a book set in the 19th century and telling the tale of two friends who set up a pioneering asylum, was published in 2005. Engleby was published in 2007.

His latest project is Devil May Care, a James Bond novel in the style of Ian Fleming, which follows on from where Octopussy and The Living Daylights left off in 1966, and is set during the Cold War.

In 2008, Sebastian selected forty of his favourite books for the Waterstone's Writer's Table, which was part of our Writer's Year campaign.

Sebastian Faulks lives with his wife and three children in London. He was awarded the CBE in 2002.

Fact file

Name: Sebastian Faulks

Date of birth: 20.4.1953

Place of birth: Newbury, Berks.

Current Home: London

Education: Wellington School, Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Similar Authors: Pat Barker, Louis de Bernieres, Ian McEwan, Andrew Greig