‘Fires which Burned Brightly: A Life in Progress’ by Sebastian Faulks

The novelist Sebastian Faulks, whose work I have always enjoyed, turned seventy in 2023 and recently published this book of essays on aspects of his life to date.

It does not purport to be a full memoir, and it does not proceed chronologically throughout – no doubt a fuller autobiography may one day follow, and I hope it does - but I enjoyed reading it very much. As is so often the case when skilled writers if fiction turn their hand to non fiction, I find the result to be peculiarly satisfying.

The one irritation here – and I guess it is inevitable in a book like this – is the all pervading tone of personal modesty. Sebastian Faulks, very commendably in many ways, hates blowing his own trumpet and chooses here (a) to focus on his limitations and errors, and (b) to deflect praise onto others, his family in particular. According to this account he was pretty hopeless at school, rebelled, drank a lot etc, and only got his scholarship to Cambridge thanks to some lucky stroke of good fortune. He then proceeds, again due apparently as much to luck as natural ability and hard work, to proceed to Fleet Street and on to the BBC and a career as one of the UK’s foremost, successful and most admired contemporary novelists. You rather have to read between the lines to appreciate how this high achiever has achieved so much.

Every chapter is interesting though, from unhappy schooldays to working on broadsheet newspapers in the 1980s when the industry was changing rapidly, to the huge amount of travel he has done to research and later promote his books. There is a long section on mental health which is most illuminating and a lot about drinking.

Very enjoyable – and I must now get to more of his novels.