William Boyd (writer)
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William Boyd (born March 7, 1952 in Accra, Ghana) is a contemporary English novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of several novels, including Brazzaville Beach, a novel about a female scientist researching chimpanzee behaviour in Africa. He won the Whitbread Book award in 1981 for A Good Man in Africa. He was also nominated for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982 for An Ice Cream War, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the same year.
As a screenwriter Boyd has written a number of feature film and television productions. The feature films include; Stars and Bars (1988) adapted from his own novel, Mister Johnson (1990), A Good Man in Africa (1994) also adapted from his own novel, he was one of a number of writers who worked on Chaplin (1992), Scoop (1987) adapted from the Evelyn Waugh novel, and The Trench (1999) which he also directed. His television screenwriting credits include; Armadillo (2001) adapted from his own novel, and Good and Bad at Games (1983).
In 1998 Boyd produced Nat Tate: American Artist, 1928-1960 which presents the paintings and tragic biography of the New York based 1950's artist, Nat Tate, who actually never existed and was along with his paintings, a creation of Boyd's. When the book was launched it was not revealed that this was a work of fiction, some were duped by the hoax, it caused quite a stir once the truth was revealed.
External links
- William Boyd Biography (http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth17)
- Important Works of William Boyd (http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/boyd/index.shtml)
- The Internet Movie Database entry for William Boyd (http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0101956/)
- 1985 audio interview of William Boyd, RealAudio (http://wiredforbooks.org/williamboyd/)