Mark Lawson interviews author and screenwriter William Boyd about his life and work. As he embarks upon the publication of his latest novel Ordinary Thunderstorms, Boyd reflects on how his own upbringing as an ex-pat colonial child in West Africa, and at a boarding school in a remote part of Scotland, has shaped his writing and informed his fascination with the themes of identity and its loss.

Unusually for a British novelist, he maintains a professional dual identity - alongside his career as a novelist, Boyd looks back on his role as a successful screenwriter with scripts including Chaplin, Scoop and The Trench, the last of which he also directed. Show less