Louis de Bernieres

Louis de Bernieres, who lives in Norfolk, published his first novel in 1990 and was selected by Granta magazine as one of the twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Since then he has become well known internationally as a writer and his sixth novel, Birds Without Wings, came out in 2004. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (1994), won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Novel. A Partisan's Daughter 2008, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and his new book, Notwithstanding: English Village Stories, is published in Autumn 2009.

As well as writing, he plays the flute, mandolin, clarinet and guitar, and performs regularly with the Antonius Players. He was born in London in 1954.