Suffolk-born actor Ralph Fiennes, the man who brought Lord Voldemort to life in the Harry Potter films and made camp commandant Amon Goeth so chilling in Schindler’s List, is returning to his home county to take part in the launch of Michael Ondaatje’s latest novel, Warlight, at The Cut in Halesworth, in June.

Fiennes first met the Booker-winning author when he played the lead in the big screen adaptation of Ondaatje’s The English Patient alongside Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth and Juliette Binoche.

Fiennes, who was born in Suffolk and spent part of his childhood in Wrentham, near Southwold, will read extracts from the book, some of which is set in the nearby area of The Saints.

Most recently Fiennes has been seen on screen as M in the last two James Bond films, Skyfall and Spectre, a role to which he will return in the next of the series. He won huge acclaim for his blackly comedic performance in The Grand Budapest Hotel and is known to millions as Voldemort in the Harry Potter films.

His most recent stage roles have included Richard III, Prospero and Ibsen’s The Master Builder. In September 2018 he will play Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the National Theatre. He is currently putting the final touches to his third film as director, The White Crow, the story of Rudolf Nureyev’s defection to the West.

Michael Ondaatje’s new Warlight is a haunting story of love, secrets and betrayal with a Second World War setting that does not let the reader go until the last devastating page. It is Ondaatje’s first novel for seven years and his only novel to be set entirely in the UK. It is narrated by Nathaniel, a 14-year-old in 1945, when “our parents went away and left us in the care of two men who may have been criminals”.

The author will discuss his work with Suffolk poet and novelist Blake Morrison, whose latest novel, The Executor, was published in March.

The launch, promoted by the Flipside Festival, will be at the Halesworth Cut on June 12th.