Britain’s War in Palestine, with Sebastian Faulks

Mia Sorrenti (0:00)

Welcome to Intelligence Squared, Where Great Minds Meet. I'm Senior Producer Mia Sorrenti.

How can fiction bring us closer to the lives caught up in the aftermath of war?

Today's episode is from our recent live event with Sebastian Faulks, one of Britain's best love novelists and author of books including Birdsong, Q and Traces, Engleby, and Charlotte Grey. Faulks joined us at Conway Hall to discuss his new novel, Farewell to Eden, a story of faith, conflict, and love set in post-war Britain and the final days of the British mandate in Palestine. He explores the history behind the novel from the testimonies of soldiers held in the Imperial War Museum archives to his own father's experiences serving in Palestine. And he reflects on how fiction can illuminate individual lives shaped by war, as well as the enduring legacy of Britain's role in the Middle East. Let's join our host, Adam Rutherford, now in conversation with Sebastian Faulks, live at Conway Hall.

Adam Rutherford (1:01)

Welcome, everyone, to Conway Hall and this Intelligence Squared event, where we are going to discuss Sebastian Faulks' new novel, A Farewell to Eden. Now, I don't really need to read all this stuff saying how great you are. I think you do. Presumably aware of who Sebastian Faulks is. Yes. Does anyone not know who he is? Okay.

The last time we sat on this stage was to discuss your last but one book, which was Seventh Son. And I think in that conversation, you said you weren't going to write any more novels.

Sebastian Faulks (1:36)

I think you may have misremembered that, Adam. I had always intended to write more, and I intend to write a lot more now, actually. I'm feeling pretty full of vigor and vim.

Adam Rutherford (1:47)

Well, you should do. It is, so I finished it this afternoon. I read it and I listened to the audio book, which is narrated by Toby Jones.

And I think it's Sebastian's best work.

Sebastian Faulks (2:05)

So, what's wrong with the other ones, then?

Adam Rutherford (2:08)

Well, I've got extensive notes we can go through. So I think it captures what you do amazingly better than any other living novelist, which is the grand sweep of history explored through the complexities of people's lives.

And it also deals with one of the most difficult geopolitical issues that has been ongoing for the whole of the 20th century and perhaps before. It's a weird thing doing this, because none of you have read this book. And now we're going to discuss it in some detail, but with no spoilers, I think.

Sebastian Faulks (2:48)

Yeah, we're not going to talk too much about this book that none of you have read. But we are going to talk a bit about it in the hope that it makes you enthusiastic about it and want to buy several copies for all your family at Christmas.

And I want to talk about it. We do want to talk about it. But I think we also are open to talking about other books, other things, life in general and whatever you would like to talk about when it comes to questions later on.

Adam Rutherford (3:09)

Yeah, so the format is going to be we're going to chew the fat for half an hour, three quarters of an hour or so, and then we'll hand it over to you.

Sebastian will be doing signings of this marvellous book in the foyer afterwards, so do grab a copy and he will sign it for you. So the most banal question that I can possibly start with, you need to set this up. You need to just describe what, and you can impose the limits of spoilers by describing what this book is about.

Sebastian Faulks (3:37)

What on earth is it about? That's a very good question.

I think it's just a little story, really. I published a book called The Seventh Sun, which we talked about, and it was a complicated book, complicated because it was quite scientific and not much good at science, and also complicated because it was a little bit sensitive, and therefore we spent a lot of time talking about it at the publishers and editing and so on. It took about six months really until we got a version that we were absolutely happy with, and then there was the publicity to do for it. Essentially, for the whole of that year, 2023, I didn't write anything. And if you are a writer, what you want to do is write. So it's like being a pianist, and I hadn't played the piano at all for a year. And you don't have to be in the Wigmore Hall, but you need to be sitting at the keyboard and doing a few five-finger exercises at least. So I sat down at the beginning of 2024, and I thought, right, okay, you bastards, I'm going to write something now. And it's a question of what is in your mind. And ideally, I don't start writing a novel until I know what I'm doing and I have a sort of ten-point plan. I know what it's about, by which I mean the themes and ideas that it's about. And I have a setting and I have a period. It might be present day. It might be in the future, as the Seventh Sun was. It might be in the past, as this one is.