They are: A Good Man in Africa (1981, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize) An Ice Cream War (1982, shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Stars and Bars (1984), The New Confessions (1987), Brazzaville Beach (1990, winner of the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize) The Blue Afternoon (1993, winner of the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, 1995), Armadillo (1998) and Any Human Heart (2002, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet).  He is also the author of a collection of screenplays and a memoir of his schooldays, School Ties (1985); five collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie ‘X’ (1995), Fascination (2004), The Dream Lover 2007) and The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth (2017). He also wrote the speculative memoir Nat Tate: an American Artist — the publication of which, in the spring of 1998, caused something of a stir on both sides of the Atlantic. A collection of his non-fiction writings, 1978-2004, entitled Bamboo, was published in October 2005. His tenth novel, Restless, was published in September 2006 (Costa Book Award, Novel of the Year 2006) followed by, Ordinary Thunderstorms (2009), Waiting for Sunrise (2012), Solo (a James Bond novel – 2013) and Sweet Caress (2015). His fifteenth novel, Love is Blind, (Prix Scott Fitzgerald) was published in September 2018. Trio appeared in October 2020 and his seventeeth novel, The Romantic was published in 2022. The Mirror and the Road: Conversations with William Boyd (edited by Alistair Owen) was published in 2023. His trilogy of Cold War espionage novels began with Gabriel’s Moon (2024), followed by The Predicament (2025). Cold Sunset, the concluding volume, will be published in September 2026.

He was educated at Gordonstoun School and attended the universities of Nice (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow (M.A.Hons in English and Philosophy) and Jesus College, Oxford, where he studied for a D.Phil in English Literature. He was also a lecturer in English Literature at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, from 1980-83. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary Doctorates in Literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling, Glasgow and Dundee. In 2005 he was awarded the CBE.

His many screenwriting credits include Stars and Bars (1987, dir. Pat O’Connor), Mr Johnson (1990, dir. Bruce Beresford), Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1990, dir. Jon Amiel), Chaplin (1992, dir. Richard Attenborough) A Good Man in Africa (1993, dir. Bruce Beresford), The Trench (1999, which Boyd also directed) and Man to Man (2005, dir. Régis Wargnier).  He adapted Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop for television (1988) and also Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy (2001). His own three-part adaptation of his novel Armadillo was screened on BBC 1 in 2001 as was his adaptation of his novel Restless (2012). His film about Shakespeare and his sonnets — A Waste of Shame — was made in 2005 for BBC 4. His 5-hour adaptation of his novel Any Human Heart (Channel 4 2010) won the BAFTA for “Best Series”. He has written two original TV films about boarding-school life in England — Good and Bad at Games (1983) and Dutch Girls (1985). His six-hour Cold War spy thriller, Spy City (Miramax, ZDF) was broadcast and streamed internationally at the end of 2020.

Boyd also writes for the theatre. His first play was SIX PARTIES that premiered at the Cottesloe Theatre as part of the National Theatre’s New Connections series in 2009. This was followed by LONGING, in 2013, on the main stage at Hampstead Theatre, an adaptation of two short stories by Anton Chekhov. LONGING played in repertoire in St Petersburg, Russia, and in Tallinn, Estonia, for six years. THE ARGUMENT, a dark comedy, is his first play with a wholly contemporary setting. It was premiered at Hampstead Downstairs (2016) and in 2019 had a new production at the Theatre Royal Bath. He has written the libretto of a full-length modern-classical opera, A VISIT TO FRIENDS, based on his play LONGING, that had its world premiere at the Aldeburgh Music Festival in June 2025. The composer is Colin Matthews.

He is married and divides his time between London and South West France.