William Boyd: ‘Ulysses is the novel to end all novels’

I n 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.

.. 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. 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. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. But the love affair is over, now.

Ulysses by James Joyce . The novel to end all novels, I suppose. The story of one day in Dublin – all human life is there.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. A unique novel. Only Nabokov could have pulled this off.

Anton Chekhov. T.