Faber was educated at Summer Fields School, Summertown; and then at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. As an undergrade Faber was a member of the Bullingdon Club, an all-male dining club for Oxford University students dating back to 1780. It is known for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and bad behaviour, including vandalism of restaurants and students' rooms.[1]
He worked in marketing and as a political assistant to Jeffrey Archer before entering the House of Commons in 1992 as Conservative Member of Parliament for Westbury.[2] He was parliamentary private secretary to the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1994 to 1996, and then to the Secretary of State for Health, from 1996 to 1997. In opposition, after the Conservatives lost the 1997 general election, he was their front bench spokesman on Foreign and Commonwealth affairs, until 1998. He served as a member of several Parliamentary select committees: Social Security, 1992–1997, Culture, Media and Sport, 1998 to 2001, and the Public Accounts Committee, 2000–2001.[3]
Faber stood down from parliament at the 2001 general election, to be succeeded by fellow Conservative Andrew Murrison, when he began a new career as a writer. His book Speaking for England: Leo, Julian and John Amery, the tragedy of a political family (2005) was about Julian Amery, his uncle by his (Amery's) marriage to Faber's maternal aunt, Julian's father Leo, and brother John, who was executed after the Second World War for high treason.
In 2009, he was appointed as head of his old prep school, Summer Fields, with effect from September 2010.
Faber married firstly Sally Gilbert, a television weather presenter, and they had one son together, but later divorced, with Faber citing James Hewitt as co-respondent.[4] He married secondly Sophie Amanda Hedley, and they have two daughters. He is a past committee member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, the governing body of the game of cricket, managing an MCC tour of Canada in 2001.[5] He is also a member of White's.[3]
Books
David Faber, Munich (Simon & Schuster) – about the events of 1937–1938 and the Munich Conference
David Faber, Speaking for England: Leo, Julian and John Amery (Simon & Schuster, 2005) – the Amery family and World War IIISBN1-4165-2596-3