Sebastian Faulks's Blog, page 5

29th September, 7pm – Lutyens & Rubinstein

21 Kensington Park Road, London, W11 2EU

Full details, click here.

30th September, 7pm – With Waterstones Harrogate

The Crown Hotel, Crown Place, Harrogate, HG1 2RZ

Full details, click here.

2nd October, 7.30pm – Wimbledon Bookfest

Big Tent, Wimbledon Common, London, SW19 5AZ

Full details, click here.

A little boy called Hans lived in a tiny crooked house in a crowded city. The landlord was the King’s cruel nephew. Hans worked as a cobbler making shoes for all the rich people. One day an old witch came in and said, ‘Would you like to own your tiny crooked house and not pay rent to the King’s cruel nephew?’ Little Hans was thrilled. He clapped his hands and danced. The old witch lent him sixty crowns to buy his house and he promised...

Fiona had finally persuaded hunky George Smiley to book a mini-break, and in the morning she received a printed postcard, second class. ‘Come to the Mason’s Arms, Railway Road, Beaconsfield at five o’clock. Ask for Mr White.’

Fiona screeched to a halt outside the hotel in her red Jilly Cooper Gti. The reception area smelled of… Bovril and paraffin. She had hoped for a log fire and champagne. After a sotto voce exchange by telephone, the night porte...

I have seen Humpty Dumpty in Bellevue Hospital where doctors

In white masks with electroshock try to put him together again

I have seen Miss Muffet ride a boxcar out of Denver past empty lots

And diner backyards while the ghosts of Whitman and Pound

Smoke marijuana from the ashcans and sit beside her tuffet

I have seen Jack Horner strung out on Benzedrine in a coldwater flat

Beneath the El, begging nickels from the Buddha

I have seen Danton and...

Review in Sunday Times, November 21, 2010, of Lydia Davis translation of Madame Bovary for Penguin Classics – find out more

Article in Simple Pleasures – Little Things That Make Life Worth Living, a National Trust anthology, published November 2010 – find out more

Article on pub signs in Icons of England ed. Bill Bryson, published by Black Swan for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, September 2008 – find out more

‘The Limey’ Article about US b...