Sebastian Faulks
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2009
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Sebastian Faulks. He is best known for his novel Birdsong, which told in shocking detail the misery of life in the Flanders trenches. It was published with little fanfare or glossy advertising and failed to win any major awards - but it became a literary phenomenon and a huge best-seller. He was inspired to write it after visiting the battlefields of the Western Front with some veterans of World War I. One old soldier held onto Sebastian's hand and recalled seeing his friend killed next to him and, for the first time for him, Sebastian says, the war emerged from the history books into real, tangible human experience. He concedes that he still struggles to get to grips with much of life. Writers, he says, are often trying to impose a structure on a world that they find generally baffling.
Favourite track: Miles by Miles Davis Book: Remembrance of Things Past (Proust) by CK Scott Moncrieff (transl.) Luxury: A wicket, cricket bat, net, an endless supply of balls and a bowling machine that can be set to replicate the style of any bowler
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping |
| 0:22.7 | you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together |
| 0:28.7 | by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:41.9 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:45.1 | The program was originally broadcast in 2009. |
| 1:07.1 | Music My castaway this week is the writer Sebastian Fokes. |
| 1:11.8 | By his own estimation, he didn't really get his life on track until he was about 30, |
| 1:16.4 | musing that he could quite easily have gone off to sheer sheep in Cumbria or something. |
| 1:21.8 | Luckily for us, and possibly the sheep, he didn't. Described as one of the most impressive novelists of his generation, his literary acuity has delivered a succession of profound and popular works. |
| 1:28.7 | He's best known for the book he wrote more than 15 years ago, Bird Song. |
| 1:32.4 | Set in the First World War, it told, in shocking, human detail, |
| 1:35.8 | the misery of life in the Flanders trenches. |
| 1:38.5 | It was published with little fanfare or glossy advertising |
| 1:41.1 | and didn't win any major awards, but it became a literary phenomenon. |
| 1:46.2 | He says, I've long ago abandoned any search for meaning, but I do believe there are values, |
| 1:51.8 | and I do believe experiences have value. I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons you write |
| 1:56.5 | to explore the meaning of experience and values? |
| 2:07.2 | I suppose it is. I think a lot of novelists set out to impose a shape on the world, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.