Novelist Louis de Bernières was born in London in 1954 and spent some of his school years in Brichington. He joined the army at 18 but left after spending four months at Sandhurst.
In 1993, Louis was selected as one of the 20 ‘Best of Young British Novelists 2’ promotion in Granta magazine. His fourth novel, Captin Corelli’s Mandolin, was published in the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Best Book). It has become a worldwide bestseller and has now been translated into over 30 languages. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 2001,and the novel has recently been adapted for the stage.