William Boyd

William Andrew Murray Boyd CBE FRSL born 7 March 1952 is a Scottish novelist short story writer and screenwriter Boyd was born in Accra Gold Coast presentday Ghana to Scottish parents both from Fife and has two younger sisters His father Alexander a doctor specialising in tropical medicine and Boyds mother who was a teacher moved to the Gold Coast in 1950 to run the health clinic at the University College of the Gold Coast Legon now the University of Ghana In the early 1960s the family moved to western Nigeria where Boyds father held a similar position at the University of Ibadan Boyd spent his early life in Ghana and Nigeria and at the age of nine went to a preparatory school and then to Gordonstoun school in Scotland and after that to the University of Nice in France followed by the University of Glasgow where he gained an MA Hons in English Philosophy and finally Jesus College Oxford His father died of a rare disease when Boyd was 26 Between 1980 and 1983 Boyd was a lecturer in English at St Hildas College Oxford and it was while he was there that his first novel A Good Man in Africa 1981 was published He was also television critic for the New Statesman between 1981 and 1983 Boyd was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to literature He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Officier de lOrdre des Arts et des Lettres He has been presented with honorary Doctorates in Literature from the universities of St Andrews Stirling Glasgow and Dundee and is an honorary fellow of Jesus College Oxford Boyd is a member of the Chelsea Arts Club Boyd met his wife Susan a former editor and now a screenwriter while they were both at Glasgow University He has a house in Chelsea London and a farmhouse and vineyard with its own appellation Château Pecachard in Bergerac in the Dordogne in southwest France In August 2014 Boyd was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the runup to Septembers referendum on that issue Source Article William Boyd writer from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30