Faulks married Veronica (née Youlten) in 1989. They have two sons, William and Arthur, born 1990 and 1996 respectively, and one daughter, Holly, born 1992. [1] Faulks is a fan of West Ham United football club. [13] Debrett's lists his recreations as tennis and wine. [10] This is literature at its very best: a book with the power to reveal the unimagined, so that one's life is set in a changed context. I urge you to read it' - Time Out

a b c d Wheeler, Pat (2002). "Narrative form/Style". Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong. New York: Continuum International Publishing. pp.23–30. ISBN 0-8264-5323-6. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021 . Retrieved 31 July 2021. An overpowering and beautiful novel... Ambitious, outrageous, poignant, sleep-disturbing, Birdsong is not a perfect novel, just a great one' - Simon Schama, The New Yorker ETA to add link to segment aired on NPR 1/23/14 on digitized British World War I diaries. See below. Faulks developed the novel to bring more public awareness to the experience of war remembered by WWI veterans. Most critics found this effort successful, commenting on how the novel, like many other WWI novels, thematically focuses on how the experience of trauma shapes individual psyches. [2] Similarly, because of the parallel narratives WWI and 1970s Britain, the novel explores metahistorical questions about how to document and recover narratives about the past. Because of its genre, themes and writing style, the novel has been favourably compared to a number of other war novels, such as Ian McEwan's Atonement and those in Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy. a b c d e Wheeler, Pat (2002). "The Novel's Performance". Sebastian Faulks's Birdsong. New York: Continuum International Publishing. pp.76–79. ISBN 0-8264-5323-6. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021 . Retrieved 31 July 2021.Split into mainly 3 sections we begin with Stephen - a young man visiting Amiens in France, staying with a wealthy man and his family, the wife of whom he falls into an illicit love affair with. The second section rejoins Stephen, when he is a lieutenant in the British Army at the start of the war. Through his eyes, Faulks tells the reader about the first day on the Somme in July 1916 and the Battle of Messines near Ypres in the following year. The book was utterly mesmerizing in its portrayal of Stephen and all the things that ultimately made him what he later would be. He was a broken man, as I am sure all those young boys who survived were. Yet, survive he did almost as if fated to do so. With so much carnage surrounding them, I am sure oftentimes even in survival, they wished to be among the dead. a b "Sebastian Faulks, Esq, CBE, FRSL". Debrett's. Archived from the original on 21 January 2013 . Retrieved 20 March 2012. The battlefield scenes are so descriptive and cleverly written and at times make harrowing reading but the author makes sure you are in that trench and you are witnessing the vivid descriptions of carnage and brutalities of War.

Elizabeth continues researching the war and talks to war veterans Gray and Brennan (who knew Stephen) about their experiences. During this period, she also becomes pregnant with Robert's child. The way that the characters and the atmosphere are built by Sebastian Faulks is just amazing! The reader is taken in to that atmosphere, and shares the feelings of the main character, Stephen. You cannot fail to be totally captivated.

Birdsong - Key takeaways

The romance is one of the reasons Birdsong works so well. The passion in Stephen and Isabelle's relationship is so electric - the snatched, illicit moments of their affair, the excitement of their elopement, the possibilities that lay ahead. And of course, its demise is devastating. All of Stephen's army colleagues have somebody they want to return home to, a face they desperately want to see again that gives them a reason to survive. He tells himself that he doesn't have anyone like this, that he never did. But deep down, he knows that's not true. Wessely, Simon (2006). "Twentieth-Century Theories on Combat Motivation and Breakdown". Journal of Contemporary History. 41 (2): 269–286. doi: 10.1177/0022009406062067. JSTOR 30036386. S2CID 145704176. In my younger, braver years, I'd already read a fair amount on the subject in Delderfield's many novels, and my heart couldn't take another volley of shrapnel, blood, guts and gore! Francoise: “No. There was an epidemic. It killed millions of people in Europe just after the end of the war.” usually, when i study a book, my appreciation and enjoyment of it multiplies tenfold. take, for example, the great gatsby, which i had liked previously but became one of my favourite books of all time when i began to study it.

Flood, Alison (24 August 2009). "Sebastian Faulks moves to head off Islam row". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 March 2012. It is a shame that it is not possible to award six stars to any book that I review, for Birdsong would surely deserve such an award. This one definitely makes it into my lifetime favourite five. Faulks portrays the Battle of Somme through Stephen’s lived experience, from dawn and its pre-battle anxiety to dusk and the day's 60,000 British casualties. Stephen, almost defeated by the realities of war, is encouraged to fight for survival by the stoic Captain Gray. He also keeps a coded journal as a way to document his experiences.A hundred years have passed after World War I, one of the biggest atrocities in our history. The last surviving veteran passed away two years ago, taking the last living memory of those horrible years along with her. It is now up to us to keep alive the memories of those who have endured the war and of those who have not. It is up to us to remember. It is up to us to keep history from repeating itself. Sebastien Faulks won my heart with his WWII espionage book, Charlotte Gray. Well, right until that ending that left me scratching my head. But Birdsong truly moved me and is quite simply- an AMAZING book. It is less the romance, but Stephen's time on the frontlines and his time with his men that was truly the gem of the book. There's a love affair, so passionate, but yet illicit and at first I thought that this is what was going to get to me in this novel. It did, but the most powerful, thought provoking thing about this book is what happened to the men in the trenches during WW I. When the book begins Stephen is an impetuous twenty year old. War is not yet in his future. There are a few references to the song of birds and how this sound is annoying to him. This will not always be the case. As we follow Stephen through his horrific war experiences, we realize how he is maturing - not just aging but developing a new humanity. His courage and his desire to survive are vivid and beautifully detailed. The song of birds, once so annoying, becomes the sound of hope and life. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger really applies here.

There are musical moments, too, from soldiers playing the flute to violins and song, and this brings theatricality but also slows down the pace of the drama which, at two-and-a-half hours, feels long. If I could quote this entire book I would. It was powerfully affecting, emotional and profound. 4.5 stars. This book contains probably the most raw accounts of war, that I have ever read. This is beautifully and skillfully balanced out with a romantic story, which I didn't think I would love as much as I have. With Birdsong, Faulks has produced a mesmerizing story of love and war... This book is so powerful that as I finished it I turned to the front to start again" - The Sunday Express

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a b c d Slade, Paul (1 January 1999). "Review of A Book That Changed Me: "Birdsong" ". BMJ: British Medical Journal. 319 (7224): 1583. doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7224.1583a. JSTOR 25186653. PMC 1117289. PMID 10591744.