Stars and Bars

Stars and Bars by novelist William Boyd is one of the comic masterpieces All Henderson Dores dreams of is fitting in. But America, land of the loony millionaire and the subway poet, down-home Bible-basher and sharp-suited hood, of paralysing personal frankness and surreally fantasized facilities, is hard enough for an Englishman to fit in to. Henderson could never shed enough inhibitions to become just another weirdo. Or could he? This hilarious fish-out-of-water comedy, which Boyd also adapted for screen for the 1980s film starring Daniel Day Lewis, was described in the Guardian as, 'Splittingly shrewd and engaging ... with an extra and uneasy little something fretting away at the ribald content'. Stars and Bars will be loved by fans of Any Human Heart and A Good Man in Africa, as well as readers of David Nicholls, Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby and Hilary Mantel. 'The wry laughter never stops ... the shrewdest pages yet from a master of wittymanipulation' Observer WILLIAM BOYD has received world-wide acclaim for his novels. They are: A Good Man in Africa (1981, winner of the Whitbread Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize) AnIce Cream War (1982, shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and winner of theJohn Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Stars and Bars (1984), The New Confessions (1987),Brazzaville Beach (1990, winner of the McVitie Prize and the James Tait BlackMemorial Prize) The Blue Afternoon (1993, winner of the 1993 Sunday ExpressBook of the Year Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, 1995),Armadillo (1998) and Any Human Heart (2002, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet). He is also the author of a collection of screenplays and a memoir of hisschooldays, School Ties (1985); and three collections of short stories: On theYankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (1995) and Fascination(2004). He also wrote the speculative memoir of his schooldays, School Ties(1985); three collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), TheDestiny of Nathalie 'X' (1995) and Fascination (2004). He also wrote thespeculative memoir Nat Tate: an American Artist -- the publication of which, inthe spring of 1998, caused something of a stir on both sides of the Atlantic. Acollection of his non-fiction writings, 1978-2004, entitled Bamboo, waspublished in October 2005. His ninth novel, Restless, was published inSeptember 2006 (Costa Book Award, Novel of the Year 2006) and his tenth novel,Ordinary Thunderstorms, published September 2009. His most recent novel is Waiting For Sunrise which published in February 2011.

William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana and grew up there and in Nigeria. His first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), won the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Somerset Maugham Prize. His other novels are An Ice Cream War (1982, shortlisted for the 1982 Booker Prize and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Stars and Bars (1984), The New Confessions (1987), Brazzaville Beach (1990, winner of the McVitie Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize), The Blue Afternoon (1993, winner of the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award), Armadillo (1998), Any Human Heart (2002, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet) and Restless (2006, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year Award). His latest novel is Ordinary Thunderstorms (2009). Some thirteen of his screenplays have been filmed, including The Trench (1999), which he also directed, and he is also the author of four collections of short stories: On the Yankee Station (1981), The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (1995), Fascination (2004) and The Dream Lover (2008). He is married and divides his time between London and South West France.