The author of Birdsong here chronicles balked lives of three brilliant men - artist Christopher Wood, spitfire pilot Richard Hillary and journalist Jeremy Wolfenden. Each of these lives is poignant on its own terms but Faulks's achievement is to show how each man was emblematic of the ethical climate of the era in which he lived and died.

Sebastian Faulks was born on 20 April 1953 and was educated at Wellington College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was the first literary editor of The Independent and became deputy editor of the Independent on Sunday before leaving in 1991 to concentrate on writing. He has been a columnist for The Guardian (1992-8) and the Evening Standard (1997-9). He continues to contribute articles and reviews to a number of newspapers and magazines. He wrote and presented the Channel 4 Television series 'Churchill's Secret Army', screened in 1999. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Sebastian Faulks lives with his wife and three children in London. He was awarded the CBE in 2002.