An evening with Sebastian Faulks

The West Kirby Bookshop is delighted to welcome the bestselling, acclaimed writer, Sebastian Faulks to celebrate the publication of his latest book Fires Which Burned Brightly.

Join us on Thursday 4th September at 7pm, when Sebastian will be in conversation with Andy Miller, before answering questions from the audience and signing copies of his latest book.

Tickets are £10 standard admission or £27 including a copy of the book. Tickets are non-reufundable and if you can't make the event and would like to reserve a signed copy of Fires Which Burned Brightly, please email hello@thewestkirbybookshop.com and we'll be able to help.

This event is being held at West Kirby Grammar School, Graham Road, CH48 5DP. Doors will open at 6:15pm, and there will be a full licensed bar for any alcoholic and soft drinks purchases before the talk.

We look forward to seeing you there!

About Fires Which Burned Brightly:

‘A lovely memoir. Charming, intelligent, inventive, full of sly humour and unexpected connection. A wonderful portrait of an age, and of a writer.’ --- Rory Stewart

‘I gulped it down . . . Utterly fascinating. This will resonate with many people.’ --- David Kynaston

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.

About Sebastian Faulks:

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.

About Andy Miller:

Andy Miller is a reader, author and editor of books, most notably The Year of Reading Dangerously. He writes about culture for the Quietus, the Spectator, the New York Times and more. He is also the co-host of Backlisted, the UK’s most popular and influential independent literary podcast, now in its tenth year and going strong.