About the author

Acclaimed British novelist Sebastian Faulks grew up with books. “My mother would read to us, sometimes children’s books, but also bits of Dickens. My brother and I were both keener on outdoor games at the time, but I developed my own reading habits when I was about 14,” he tells The Weekly. After university he hoped to be an author but worked as a teacher, then a journalist. “I was always writing in the evenings,” he says. He quit journalism aged 38 and expected to return. “Hasn’t happened yet, though,” he quips. Faulks is best known for his French trilogy, including

Charlotte Gray, made into a film starring Cate Blanchett.