17 October 2025
Fires Which Burned Brightly
None of your tat this week on the book podcast with the genius that is Sebastian Faulks, but test one is how will he react to Richard's alternative title for this collection of essays that form a loose autobiography! Once we've over that hill, it's plain sailing as they discuss how much the world has changed in the last few decades, the ethics of sending an 8 year old to boarding school, the glory days of journalism and mental illness. Is Richard still in a dream that started 25 years ago? How much research goes into a book like Birdsong? What is the motivation for writing books continuing the stories of James Bond and Jeeves and Wooster (not in the same books!)? Plus a discussion of 20th century toilet paper.
Sebastian Faulks is the author of Fires Which Burned Brightly: A Life in Progress (Hutchinson Heinemann £20, out now). He is appearing at the Southbank London Literature Festival on 29 October.
Buy the book here - https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/fires-which-burned-brightly-sebastian-faulks/7792168
Get tickets to Sebastian's South Bank show on 29th October here https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/sebastian-faulks-fires-which-burned-brightly/
