Trio (2021)

by William Boyd

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"From the award-winning, best-selling author comes a rollicking novel with a dark undertow, set around three unforgettable individuals and a doomed movie set. A producer. A novelist. An actress. It's summer 1968--a time of war and assassinations, protests and riots. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a disaster-plagued, Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. As the movie shoot zigs and zags, these layers of secrets become increasingly more untenable. Pressures build inexorably. The FBI and CIA get involved. Someone is going to crack--or maybe they all will. From one of Britain's best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel--by turns hilarious and heartbreaking--that asks the vital questions: What makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't?"--… (more)

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Taking as its setting the making of a feature film in Brighton in 1968, this novel captures the changing of the times with the background of a social revolution that affected more than the young. The trio are Talbot, the film’s producer; Elfrida, an alcoholic author with writer’s block who is married to the film’s director; and Anny, the young American star of the film. All are beset by problems as Talbot endeavours to keep the film on track for completion and within budget while facing multiple problems in his professional and private life. William Boyd movingly recreates the atmosphere of the period and also the pressures, juggling, ego-massaging and compromises that go into film making in a thoughtful, revealing and thoroughly readable story,

camharlow2 | Jul 25, 2023 |

A well constructed tale of lives disintegrating and coming back together on a film set in Brighton in 1968. The period background is lightly but effectively done. With an experienced author such as Mr Boyd as you might expect the plot lines are well constructed, the writing is simple and efficient, nothing out of place and nothing over done. He makes it all seem easy. But that's the trick isn't it. (

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Steve38 | Mar 29, 2023 |

Story of the characters involved in the production of a film in Brighton England. Quick read, characters were complicated and sad. (

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janismack | Sep 6, 2022 |

Read for LA book club. Elfrida, Anny and Talbot are all involved directly or indirectly in the production of a film being made around Brighton. The characters are well drawn and the story develops with good observations of life. (

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simbaandjessie | Aug 17, 2022 |

Trio (Penguin), by William Boyd is the story of three people on a film set in Brighton in the late 1960s. The trio of the title are the female lead – a Hollywood star, who is having a fling with the much younger, up and coming actor; the producer who is not at all convinced about the validity of the film he is making; and the director’s wife, who is a successful author but now has writer’s block and endlessly obsesses about her next book on the last day of Virginia Wolff. These backstories are weaved together, and interlinked characters from the past interlinked, in skilled fashion. Pleasing reading but not Boyd at his absolute stellar best. (

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davidroche | Oct 14, 2021 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
William Boyd	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Powers, Imani Jade	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK

Paris, France

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"From the award-winning, best-selling author comes a rollicking novel with a dark undertow, set around three unforgettable individuals and a doomed movie set. A producer. A novelist. An actress. It's summer 1968--a time of war and assassinations, protests and riots. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a disaster-plagued, Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. As the movie shoot zigs and zags, these layers of secrets become increasingly more untenable. Pressures build inexorably. The FBI and CIA get involved. Someone is going to crack--or maybe they all will. From one of Britain's best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel--by turns hilarious and heartbreaking--that asks the vital questions: What makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't?"--

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From the award-winning, best-selling author comes a rollicking novel with a dark undertow, set around three unforgettable individuals and a doomed movie set. A producer. A novelist. An actress. It's summer 1968--a time of war and assassinations, protests and riots. While the world is reeling, our trio is involved in making a disaster-plagued, Swingin' Sixties British movie in sunny Brighton. All are leading secret lives. As the movie shoot zigs and zags, these layers of secrets become increasingly more untenable. Pressures build inexorably. The FBI and CIA get involved. Someone is going to crack--or maybe they all will. From one of Britain's best loved writers comes an exhilarating, tender novel--by turns hilarious and heartbreaking--that asks the vital questions: What makes life worth living? And what do you do if you find it isn't?

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