Sebastian Faulks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
27-Aug-2007 • Literary
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Right at the end, a woman in the audience asked Sebastian Faulks if, because his books' sex scenes read so convincingly from a female point of view, he'd had any help writing them - wife, daughters perhaps?
No, said Faulks, he didn't sub-contract any part of his work. And, although it would have sounded too egotistical, he could have referred her to his earlier answer to questions about three of his other novels: no, he's not 110 and hasn't fought at the Somme (Birdsong), nor has he ever been an agent parachuted behind enemy lines (Charlotte Gray) and nor was his great-aunt in a Victorian asylum (Human Traces).
Faulks gave short but intensely moving readings from the first two of these, along with lighter patches from his disturbingly dark novel Engleby and a couple of scintillating poetic parodies.
He also talked briefly about being commissioned to write the new James Bond novel, due out next May. This only took him six weeks to finish, but he was still sworn to secrecy about the book's contents.
It didn't matter. After such a sparkling performance, Faulks's audience was already shaken and stirred with anticipation.
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