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Portrait image of Gavin Lyall Photo: WATFORD/Mirrorpix via Getty Images (1969)

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Lyall, Gavin

Gavin Tudor Lyall was a British author of espionage thrillers. He was born in Birmingham, England, where he attended the King Edward VI School between 1943 and 1951. After serving in the Royal Air Force 1951–53, he read English at Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1956. While at Cambridge he edited the student newspaper Varsity in which he also published a c...

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Portrait of William Boyd Photo: Peter Peitsch (2009) / www.peitschphoto.com

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Boyd, William

The British author William Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana. His father, a doctor, and his mother, a teacher, moved to The British Gold Coast in 1950, and Boyd grew up in a house full of black servants. The British Gold Coast became independent Ghana when he was five years old, and the family moved to Nigeria, whose independence in 1960 was followed by military coups and civil war. The war in...

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