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De Bernières took the publishing industry by surprise in the mid-1990s when his third novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, became a word-of-mouth success. Two earlier novels by British-born de Bernières had been set in South America, where he'd travelled after a short, inglorious stint in the army.
These highly coloured magical realist stories provoked interest but it was his more naturalistic tale of Second World War Crete, peopled with colourful characters, that became a worldwide bestseller. It also boosted Crete's tourist trade, spawned a Hollywood film and launched de Bernières into a public row with veterans of the Cretan resistance, who accused him of misrepresenting them.
He is about to publish his new novel, Birds Without Wings, set in Southern Anatolia during the First World War.
5 June at 7.30pm
Reading poetry in a musical event with the Antonius Players
See also: Antony Beevor | Louis de Bernières | Bob Geldof | Germaine Greer | Doris Lessing | Ken Loach | Ian McEwan | Orhan Pamuk | Tony Parsons | Zadie Smith | John Updike | Arnold Wesker | Jacqueline Wilson | Benjamin Zephaniah
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