The only dividend of the years vanishing, as far as I can see, is that it makes aspects of the past appear more interesting or humorous than they felt at the time.

InFires Which Burned Brightly, Faulks, a reluctant memoirist, offers readers a series of detailed snapshots from a life in progress. They include a post-war rural childhood cold mutton and wet washing on a rack over the range the booze-sodden heyday of Fleet Street and a career as one of the countrys most acclaimed novelists.

There are not one, but two daring escapes from boarding school; the delirium of a jetlagged American book tour; the writing ofBirdsongin his brothers house in 1992; and memorable trips across the channel to France. Politics, psychiatry and frustrated ventures into the world of entertainment are analysed with patience and rueful humour.

The book is driven by a desire to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. It ends with a tribute to Faulkss parents and a sense of how his own generation was shaped by the disruptive power of war and its aftermath.

Sharply perceptive and alive with a generous wit,Fires Which Burned Brightlyis a work of subtle yet profound intelligence and warmth.