Louis de Bernières

Louis de Bernières, born 8 December 1954, is an English novelist. He is known for his 1994 historical war novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin. In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists" as part of a promotion in Granta magazine. Captain Corelli's Mandolin was published the following year, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book. It was also shortlisted for the 1994 Sunday Express Book of the Year.

It has been translated into over 11 languages and is an international best-seller. On 16 July 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Arts by the De Montfort University in Leicester, which he had attended when Leicester Polytechnic. Politically, he identifies himself as Eurosceptic and has voiced his support for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.

De Bernières' most famous book is his fourth, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, in which the eponymous hero is an Italian soldier who is part of the occupying force on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Second World War. In the US, it was initially published as Corelli's Mandolin. In 2001, the book was turned into a film.

De Bernières strongly disapproved of the film version, commenting, "It would be impossible for a parent to be happy about its baby's ears being put on backward." However, he states that it has redeeming qualities and particularly likes the soundtrack.

Since the book's release and the movie, Cephalonia has become a significant tourist destination, and the tourist industry on the island has begun to capitalize on the book's name. Of this, de Bernières said: "I was very displeased to see that a bar in Agia Efimia has abandoned its perfect Greek name and renamed itself Captain Corelli's, and I dread the idea that sooner or later there might be Captain Corelli Tours or Pelagia Apartments."