William Boyd: ‘The books world is much tougher now’ | William Boyd | The Guardian

William Boyd, 70, is the author of 26 books, including Any Human Heart (2002) - adapted for television in 2010 with three actors playing the lead role of Logan Mountstuart - and Restless, the Costa novel of the year in 2006. His new book, The Romantic, is set in the 19th century and presents itself as a biographical fiction inspired by the personal papers of one Cashel Greville Ross, a Scots-born Irishman who fought at Waterloo, met Shelley, smuggled Greek antiquities and set out in search of the source of the Nile, among other adventures. Boyd, whom Sebastian Faulks has called "the finest storyteller of his generation", grew up in Ghana and Nigeria and lives in London and the Dordogne, from where he spoke over Zoom.