Sebastian Faulks began his writing career as a journalist - including a stint at the Daily Telegraph - before publishing his first novel, The Girl at the Lion d'Or, in 1989. He’s gone on to write over a dozen more novels, including Charlotte Gray, Engleby, and Human Traces -- but is perhaps best known for Birdsong, a war novel and family saga which moves between the trenches of World War One and late-1970s England, and which consistently appears on surveys of the nation’s favourite books. His latest work, Paris Echo, is set in contemporary France, and follows two outsiders as they navigate the city - their steps echoed by testimonials from women who lived there under German occupation during the Second World War. He joined Laura Powell to talk about inspiration, journalism, Paris - and his life in books.