William Boyd: ‘Ulysses is the novel to end all novels’
The ‘Gabriel’s Moon’ author on which of his 18 novels means the most to him, and the book he once loved obsessively
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In a prolific literary career spanning 18 novels, William Boyd has become known for his masterfully interwoven plots, his sweeping historical backdrops, and his consistent readability.
From the mega hit Any Human Heart (2002), later adapted into a Channel 4 drama starring Matthew Macfadyen and Hayley Atwell, to his 2013 James Bond novel Solo, Boyd’s versatile output has included screenplays, journalism, and even a mischievous hoax: the fictional (but presented as otherwise) biography of an abstract expressionist artist called Nat Tate in 1998 even had David Bowie playing along.
As Boyd publishes his latest book, the spy thriller Gabriel’s Moon, he shares insights into his reading and writing life...
What is on your to-read pile? Is it under control or out of hand?
It’s totally out of hand. Some choices from the teetering pile: Homework by Geoff Dyer, Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert, A Seditious and Sinister Tribe by Donald Rayfield, Shooting Midnight Cowboy by Glenn Frankel, How to Be by Adam Nicolson.
The best book I’ve read so far this year...
Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind by Frank Tallis. I have a mild obsession with Vienna and Freudianism. Tallis’s clear-eyed, judicious analysis is the best I’ve read – about the city and the man.
The first book I ever loved obsessively...
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. But the love affair is over, now.
The book I’d save from a burning building...
Ulysses by James Joyce. The novel to end all novels, I suppose. The story of one day in Dublin – all human life is there.
The book that surprised me the most...
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. A unique novel. Only Nabokov could have pulled this off.
The author who has taught me the most...
Anton Chekhov. The short stories. The human condition laid bare.
My favourite place to read...
At my desk. If I try to read in bed or in an armchair I fall asleep.
The book I’ve written that means the most to me personally is...
Any Human Heart. It was technically the most difficult novel of mine to write: 500 pages covering an entire, long life in journal form. It has also provoked the most responses from readers – both sexes, all ages – more than any of my other novels.
The best thing a reader has said to me – and the worst...
The best: “I am Logan Mountstuart [the protagonist of Any Human Heart] and I knew all those women!” The worst: a critic described my first novel, A Good Man in Africa, as “pornographic”.
Favourite bookshop (and why)?
John Sandoe in Chelsea. A beautiful bookshop. The perfect, well-stocked independent bookshop with super-well-informed staff.
Is the book always better than the film?
I’m afraid so. You can do absolutely anything in a novel. Film is a world of parameters, compromises, and impossibilities.
‘Gabriel’s Moon’ is out now, published by Viking
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