Sebastian Faulks in conversation: 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 #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Politics on the Edge

'I gulped it down . . . Utterly fascinating. This will resonate with many people.'

DAVID KYNASTON Historian and author of The City of London

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.

Sebastian Faulks will be talking to Rebecca Fletcher in the Town Hall at 7pm, before taking questions from the audience.