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Fires Which Burned Brightly
A Life in Progress
Brief Description
A new, wise and warmly funny work of memoir from bestselling novelist Sebastian Faulks. 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...
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Fires Which Burned Brightly
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Description
A new, wise and warmly funny work of memoir from bestselling novelist Sebastian Faulks.
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.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781529154658
Publisher: Cornerstone
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 02 September 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Hutchinson Heinemann
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 40.0mm
Width: 138.0mm
Height: 222.0mm
Weight: 500g
Pages: 352
About the Author
Sebastian Faulks has written nineteen books, of which A Week in December and The Fatal Englishman were number one in the Sunday Times bestseller lists. He is best known for Birdsong, part of his French trilogy, and Human Traces, the first in an ongoing Austrian trilogy. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a journalist on national papers. He has also written screenplays and has appeared in small roles on stage. He lives in London.
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