Boyd, William (writer)

William Boyd was born March 7, 1952 in Accra ( Ghana ) and spent the first five years of his life in this country, then lived for three years in Nigeria , after which he moved with his family to Scotland. My father is a doctor, specialist in tropical medicine (b.app. 1920, died about 1977 after a long illness) ^[7] , mother is a teacher, two younger sisters ^[8] . Boyd graduated from School in Scotland , then went to France , where he entered the University of Nice - Sophia Antipolis , then studied at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and at Oxford College of Jesus ( England ).

From 1980 to 1983, he lectured , but after publishing his first three short stories, Boyd realized that he was able to feed himself even without scientific and teaching activities, and was completely immersed in literature.

In 1981, Boyd's first book, , which became a bestseller ; a film of the same name was made in 1994.

In 1998, Boyd's next book, “ ,” was published, telling of a New York abstract expressionist . Many read this book as a real biographical narrative, since the author did not indicate that everything written here was his fiction, and famous people who knew the truth, such as David Bowie , jokingly confirmed their personal acquaintance with Net Tate. When the truth was revealed, Boyd clarified that the name of the artist he invented was a reference to the London National Gallery ( Nat ional Gallery ) and the Tate Gallery ( Tate ). Boyd painted the illustrations for the book, “Tate's paintings” on his own, since before starting literary activity he thought of becoming an artist, “Tate's photograph” is an unknown man from Boyd’s personal photo collection ^[9] .

In 2005, Boyd became the commander of the Order of the British Empire .

In 2014, Boyd became one of more than 200 public figures who signed a letter to The Guardian against the separation of Scotland from the UK in anticipation of an upcoming referendum. ^[10]

Personal life

William Boyd has been married since the mid-1970s to a woman named Susan, whom he met while studying at the University of Glasgow ^[8] and who is editor-at-large of Marie Claire ^[7] ; he himself lives now in London, then in southwestern France ^[11] . The couple does not have children (according to 1999), when asked whether it is their choice or their fate, Boyd refuses to answer ^[7] .

• 1981 - Costa Prize for the story
• 1982 - Somerset Maugham Award for the Story “A Good Man in Africa”
• 1982 - The Mail on Sunday / for the novel
• 1982 - Booker Prize for the novel "Ice Cream War" - nomination
• 1983 - included in the list of “20 best young British writers” according to magazine and Book Marketing Council
• 1990 - Award for the novel
• 1991 - McVity Prize in the category "Scottish Writer of the Year" for the novel "Brazzaville Beach"
• 1993 - The Sunday Express Book of the Year Award for the novel " "
• 1995 - Award for Blue Noon
• 2004 - Dublin Literary Prize (short list) for the novel
• 2005 - Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• 2006 - Costa Award for the story

• Eleanor Bloe. New Territory for Explorer in Fiction ( nytimes.com) , May 21, 1983
• Tim Adams. Too many tricks spoil the book on theguardian.com , October 3, 2004
• Jacques Testar, Tristan Summerscale. Interview with William Boyd on thewhitereview.org , June 2011
• William Boyd on worldcat.org