Throughout his career as a novelist, William Boyd has never stopped writing non-fiction, providing a fascinating counterpoint to the world of his novels.Bamboo gathers together Boyd’s writing on literature, art, the movie business, television, people he has met, places he has visited and autobiographical reflections on his African childhood and his years at boarding school. From Pablo Picasso to the allure of the British caff, from Charles Dickens to Catherine Deneuve, from mini-cabs to Brideshead Revisited, this collection proves an engrossing and revealing companion to the work of one of Britain’s leading novelists.
‘The reader is getting a substantial amount of Boyd for his or her money … Perhaps his professionalism as a writer combines with his abiding interest in art to give Boyd the rare skill of translating visual idiom into intelligent prose’ Independent
‘Wonderful … there are enormous pleasures to be had from Bamboo’ Spectator
‘Serious, provocative, intelligent, Boyd’s writing is endlessly open to ideas’ Daily Telegraph
‘One of the best writers in English’ Sunday Telegraph
In this probing series of exclusive interviews, Alistair Owen talks to William Boyd about his works and the life which has inspired them.
The conversations which emerge are a deep-dive into film, art, theatre, literature and the life of a writer. This is one of Britain’s most beloved authors on what it is to write in a variety of forms.