Sebastian Faulks

Author profile

born

in Donnington, The United Kingdom

April 20, 1953

gender

male

website

http://www.sebastianfaulks.com/

genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction

About this author

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Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which he served from 1939 to 1946. He saw action in Holland, France, Tunisia, Italy (at the Anzio landings), Syria and Palestine. He was wounded three times and awarded an immediate MC after an action against the Hermann Goering Parachute Troops in North Africa in 1942.
His maternal grandfather, Philip Henry Lawless, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, 28th cou...more Faulks is the son of Pamela (Lawless) and Peter Ronald Faulks, a Berkshire solicitor who later became a judge. He grew up in Newbury. His mother was both cultured and highly strung. She introduced him to reading and music at a young age. Her own mother, from whom she was estranged, had been an actress in repertory. His father was a company commander in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, in which he served from 1939 to 1946. He saw action in Holland, France, Tunisia, Italy (at the Anzio landings), Syria and Palestine. He was wounded three times and awarded an immediate MC after an action against the Hermann Goering Parachute Troops in North Africa in 1942.
His maternal grandfather, Philip Henry Lawless, enlisted in the 1st Battalion, 28th county of London Regiment, otherwise known as The Artists' Rifles in 1914, and served in trench warfare on the Western Front until 1917, when he moved to the 26th Battalion Middlesex Regiment and finished the war in Salonika. He was decorated several times and received the Military Cross in 1918, the standard Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1914 Star. He eventually left the Army and returned to work as a wine merchant - his father's original occupation.[2]
His paternal grandfather, Major James Faulks (Major was his name, not a military rank) was an accountant who had previously worked as a schoolmaster at a private boarding school in Tunbridge Wells, while Major's provisions merchant father, William Robert Faulks, supplied dairy products in late Victorian Paddington.[2]
Faulks' father wanted him to become a diplomat. He claims his first ambition was to be a taxi driver until at the age of fifteen, while reading George Orwell, he decided to become a novelist instead. In fact, he is the only member of his paternal family not to be a lawyer; his father and uncle were judges and his brother Edward is a QC specialising in medical negligence.
Faulks was educated at the fee-charging Wellington College and studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he won an open exhibition and to which he was elected an honorary fellow in 2007. He took a teaching job at the Dwight-Franklin International School after university while also moving into journalism, becoming a features writer for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and was recruited by the Independent as Literary Editor in 1986. He became the 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 and to broadcast regularly. He wrote and presented the Channel 4 series Churchill's Secret Army, about the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), screened in 1999. Faulks is a team captain on BBC Radio 4's literary quiz The Write Stuff.
Faulks lives with his wife, Veronica (formerly his assistant at The Independent), and their three children William, Holly and Arthur . He works from his study in a top floor flat of a house near Holland Park Avenue, ten minutes from his home, starting work at 10am and finishing at 6pm, regardless of whether he is writing a book or not.
He was appointed a CBE in the Birthday Honours List 2002 for "services to Literature" and he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1994.
Faulks supports West Ham United. He writes about this in "Upton and Other Parks," a contribution to the 1990 football book Saturday's Boys.

From Wikipedia (less)

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Sebastian Faulks's Books

Average rating: 3.76 · 42,569 ratings · 3,483 reviews · 21 distinct works · Similar authors

	Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War 4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 23,155 ratings — published 1993 — 41 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Charlotte Gray 3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 avg rating — 3,812 ratings — published 1998 — 27 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Engleby 3.63 of 5 stars 3.63 avg rating — 2,983 ratings — published 2007 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Week in December 3.15 of 5 stars 3.15 avg rating — 3,062 ratings — published 2009 — 25 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, Rodrigo Corral (Designer), Mark Stutzman (Illustrator) 3.31 of 5 stars 3.31 avg rating — 2,644 ratings — published 2008 — 39 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Girl at the Lion d'Or 3.49 of 5 stars 3.49 avg rating — 1,916 ratings — published 1989 — 18 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Human Traces 3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 avg rating — 1,593 ratings — published 2005 — 27 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Green Dolphin Street 3.43 of 5 stars 3.43 avg rating — 1,523 ratings — published 2001 — 22 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Parts 3.42 of 5 stars 3.42 avg rating — 934 ratings — published 2012 — 19 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Fool's Alphabet 3.18 of 5 stars 3.18 avg rating — 418 ratings — published 1992 — 9 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Sebastian Faulks

Pistache (2 books)
by Sebastian Faulks
3.3536585365853657 of 5 stars 3.35 avg rating — 82 ratings

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Quotes by Sebastian Faulks

“Depression - that limp word for the storm of black panic and half-demented malfunction - had over the years worked itself out in Charlotte's life in a curious pattern. Its onset was often imperceptible: like an assiduous housekeeper locking up a rambling mansion, it noiselessly went about and turned off, one by one, the mind's thousand small accesses to pleasure.”
― Sebastian Faulks

tags: darkness, depression, panic

39 people liked it

“People never explain to you exactly what they think and feel and how their thoughts and feelings work, do they? They don't have time. Or the right words. But that's what books do. It's as though your daily life is a film in the cinema. It can be fun, looking at those pictures. But if you want to know what lies behind the flat screen you have to read a book. That explains it all.”
― Sebastian Faulks, A Week in December

27 people liked it

“Memory is the only thing that binds you to earlier selves; for the rest, you become an entirely different being every decade or so, sloughing off the old persona, renewing and moving on. You are not who you were, he told her, nor who you will be.”
― Sebastian Faulks, Charlotte Gray

21 people liked it

See all Sebastian Faulks's quotes »

Polls

Vote for our September group read - Fiction 1900-1940

The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

11 votes, 23.9%

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

9 votes, 19.6%

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

7 votes, 15.2%

Cheri by Colette

6 votes, 13.0%

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

5 votes, 10.9%

Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden

3 votes, 6.5%

The Girl at the Lion d'Or y Sebastian Faulks

2 votes, 4.3%

The Magnificent AmbersonsbyBooth Tarkington

1 vote, 2.2%

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

1 vote, 2.2%

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

1 vote, 2.2%

46 total votes

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Sebastian's Fans (294)

Sebastian Faulks

Author profile

combine editionsSebastian Faulks's Books

Series by Sebastian Faulks

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Sebastian Faulks

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Sebastian Faulks's Books