Sebastian Faulks began his working life, like Ian Fleming, as a journalist, working for national newspapers in London from 1978 to 1991. Since then, however, he has been a full-time author, and his novels have been among the most widely admired of their time. They include the epic * Human Traces (20...

Sebastian Faulks began his working life, like Ian Fleming, as a journalist, working for national newspapers in London from 1978 to 1991. Since then, however, he has been a full-time author, and his novels have been among the most widely admired of their time. They include the epic * Human Traces (2005) and the much-loved Birdsong (1993), which has sold more than three million copies. HE is also the author of a triple biography, The Fatal Englishman,and a book of literary parodies of other authors (including Fleming) called Pistache.His most recent novel in Engleby *(2006). He first encountered the Bond novels as a twelve-year-old; the books were banned at his school, but he read them by torchlight under the sheets.