William Boyd was born in Ghana and grew up there and in Nigeria. His first novel, A Good Man in Africa, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize. His other novels include Stars and Bars, The New Confessions, and Brazzaville Beach which won the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. An Ice Cream War was also shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His novel Any Human Heart won the Prix Jean Monnet award and Restless won the Costa Novel of the Year Awards. His newest novel, Trio, was released in October 2020.