Set in 1960’s Brighton whilst film making, the story revolves around an actress, a blocked writer and wife of the director and the producer. All have their own troubles and while these occasionally coincide there is very little that links them.
Overall it was difficult to engage with any of the protagonists or care about them. Perhaps that is the achievement of the novel.

William Boyd is definitely one of my go-to authors for good writing and excellent plotting plus a little bit of surprise as his themes are so wide ranging. ‘Trio’ did not disappoint. Brighton in the 1960s and filming has begun on location. We are introduced to the ‘cast’ both on and off set and dualities in private and personal personas emerge. The title ‘Trio’ is rather clever - I was initially anticipating a ménage a trois, and there are some triangular relationships, but this is also very much a book about three people who all have in common their isolation, unstable relationships, dependence on drugs or alcohol and how these are impacting on their professional lives. They all appear to be something they are not and gradually the masks slip - as one character observes, ‘ if you want to know what human beings are like, actually like,if you want to know what’s going on in their heads behind those masks we wear, then read a novel. ‘ The novel is full of duplicity - affairs, financial trickery, theft, pretending to be something you are not whether professionally or sexually. I particularly loved the character of Elfrida, how Boyd portrays her drinking and the novel within a novel as Elfrida begins to write the first lines of her new book. This was a really enjoyable read, at times comic, at times tragic. With thanks to Penguin General U.K., Hamish Hamilton, Fig Tree and Viking for a digital copy of this book

I've always looked forward to reading William Boyd's novels and this one didn't disappoint.

In Trio he weaves together the lives of three disparate people into the story of a film being shot in Brighton in 1968. They all have their secrets and their problems which they try to overcome in their various ways. The writing is engrossing, I found it difficult to put the book down and it builds to a terrific climax as it reaches the end.

I particularly enjoyed Elfrida's story as she fought her demons with varying degrees of success.

I thoroughly recommend this book.

The first Boyd book I have read; it wont be the last.
I loved the tone and the setting for the novel, it is very evocative of the sixties. The tree characters we follow are all fighting internal demons that only we are the reader are fully aware of. My favourite character was Elfrida as her story is wryly observed, funny and uplifting.
I think this will be runaway success.

A tender and eloquent telling of the interlocking stories of three people as each questions the meaning of their own life and whether and how to make it worth living. Uncannily realistic character portrayal making you wish - for all their weaknesses and idiosyncrasies - that each of them will make it despite the odds certainly not always looking like they're with them.

An absolute classic.

Boyd immediately places you right in the middle of the era, painting the time and space so clearly you could almost be standing in it.

#NoSpoilers but this is a slow burn story, that builds to an absolute blaze and I loved every minute of it.

Highly recommend.

This is the kind of book I knew I would love from the description - three different perspectives, tied together by a film being made in 1968.

Anny is an actress in the film, Talbot is the productive and Elfrida is a writer married to the director. The book alternates between their varied perspectives through.

I have to admit with a format like this I’m bound to have favourites, and for me the character of Elfrida was by far my favourite. I love a messy woman! I was a bit less interested in the other characters as a result.

I loved this from the get go, I loved the characters and I loved the setting. The only thing that made this a 4 after being a 5 was I wanted more! I wanted more more character development, more plot, more book! I couldn’t believe it when I only had an hour of reading left and I felt the last quarter of the book was a little bit rushed.

I absolutely loved being in this world and I know this is going to be another huge hit for William Boyd.

I’ve read a few of William Boyd’s books and have never been disappointed. This book was quite unique, it still hold Boyd’s usual gripping writers voice but it deals with some very tricky topics- including mental health issues. As always Boyd’s spot on with his observations and sums up emotions so well. The big questions raised - are dealt with sensitively, as you would expect from Boyd. A very emotional read.

William Boyd's latest novel is set in Brighton and Paris amidst the global political and social turbulence of 1968 and its impact on the eponymous trio. There is the gay ex-military officer in WW2 and now film producer, Talbot Kydd, a stereotypically diffident English gentleman, a famous 28 year old American actress with an unfortunate choice in older men, Anny Viklund, and novelist Elfrida Wing, once lauded as the new Virginia Woolf, married to philandering film director, Reggie 'Rodrigo' Tipton, who hasn't written anything in a decade, drowning her personal dissatisfactions in alcohol. All have their own specific demons, issues with identity, a gap between their outer selves with their inner lives, connecting sparingly with each other. We follow the trajectory of their summer in Brighton as events conspire to challenge their perceptions of who they are and how they react to the pressures and endeavour to respond to the inner turbulence that arises.

Talbot's gay life is all kept secret, button downed, and below the radar, he is married to Naomi and has two children, feeling himself out of step with the more self confident and assured members of the gay community in the wake of the decriminalisation of their sexuality, with the existence of openly gay clubs, such as The Icebox. As producer, he finds himself facing a plethora of issues on the Ladder to the Moon film set, film sets and the industry are notoriously dysfunctional by nature, with numerous players with their own agendas, those wanting a slice of the action, the vagaries of the actors, corruption, theft, ostentatious and lavish parties, and other constant everyday issues that arise. There are further complications with a business partner who wants to swindle Talbot, others who see him as an irrelevance, prompting him to question where his future lies.

Engaging in a covert sexual affair with her film co-star, a pop star, Toby, this makes Anny happy, it makes a change from her more normal sexual liaisons with older men. The divorced Anny may be a famous film star, but she has little personal agency, power or control of her life, relying as she does on Equanil and other pills to provide an equilibrium that is otherwise out of her reach. The return of her ex-husband, Cornell Weekes, a political idealist, now a wanted escaped fugitive having committed bombing outrages, turns her life upside down. She ends up escaping the trickiest of situations with the FBI wanting to interview her, going to Paris to her older philosopher boyfriend, Jaques Soldat, in whom she puts her trust, creating havoc on the movie set. Elfrida feels that she is breaking her writing impasse as she embarks on a new novel, The Last Day of Virgina Woolf, only to suffer from delusions, hallucinations and psychosis as she keeps rewriting the beginning, can she find a way out of her increasingly troubled situation?

Boyd gives his characters a compassionate tender humanity, their personal confusions and struggles resonate with the complexity and turmoil of times that they attempt to negotiate their way through to a new future and new identity. There is wit, black humour, and charm in the narrative, chaotic situations that often tip over into farce and comedy. It is the characters that hold centre stage and held my interest as they flounder in their own particular ways, although connected less with Anny than with the gentle Talbot and the raging alcoholic that is Elfrida. This is a wonderfully engrossing and fun historical read on the complications of life and identity that I think will appeal to many readers. Many thanks to Penguin UK for an ARC.

Wonderfully conjures up the 60s without falling into cliche or caricature. Real return to form for Boyd, whose last few books haven't quite worked for me.

This novel is set in Brighton at the height of the Swinging Sixties in the summer of 1968. Our Trio is made up of three protagonists:
Elfida a writer – currently drowning her writers block in vodka
Anny a glamorous actress from the States
Talbot a film producer – struggling with the vagaries of actors, sets and money.
Their lives become intertwined and as the movie shoot continues with its rollercoaster of ups and downs the private lives of this Trio begin to leak into their public ones.
The tension is ratcheted up with skillful writing and looks at what makes a life worth living…
William Boyd is not an author I would normally read but I am glad of the opportunity for me to delve into this – I know Brighton well and the writing is evocative.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I’ve always found William Boyd to be a wonderfully inventive writer, he seldom fails to grab me and haul me deeply into his stories. This book is set in Brighton, Sussex in 1968 and though it features a full cast of characters the spotlight falls mainly on three people: a film producer, an actress and a novelist. And from the moment Boyd drops in the adjective delightful I knew this was going to be a very English tale.

Talbot is middle-aged, balding and struggling to adapt to the realisation that his sexual preference is for the male of the species. He’s overseeing the making of a film with an improbable title and an unlikely plot. Anny is a star of the moment American actress cast as the female lead, she has a history of having relationships with older, troublesome men. Elfrida is the third main player and hasn’t written a book for ten years - she's currently finding solace in a bottle as her womanising husband is off directing the film.

We watch as this unsettled trio of characters are slowly unwrapped. Each is engrossed in fighting their own particular demons as the filming draws to its end. From time to time their paths cross. Slowly it begins to dawn on each of them that their own situation is becoming more complex and less resolved. It’s all very cleverly done with thoughtful, brilliantly crafted characters and spot on dialogue. Sometimes it sad and often it’s hilarious, a cross between a slowly unravelling tragedy and a old ‘Carry On’ film. I absolutely loved it!

Although William Boyd writes beautifully and evocatively, I found the characters in this book shallow and depressing. It was interesting to see how the world of filming apparently was in the 60’s, But it all seemed a bit sleazy and tawdry to me.
It won’t stop me reading more by this author as I have read good reviews about other books of his, this one just wasn’t for me.

William Boyd is back in his pure state. William Boyd has returned proving that he is the best contemporary storyteller.

The characters created by Boyd are complex and nuanced, and Trio's three main characters are no exception. During reading, I have grown up with them, becoming affectionate for those I didn't initially like (another thing Boyd is capable of). Three main characters, three different lives (one led by self discovery, another by vulnerability and the other by love sentimentality) and interconnected with each other offering three different endings.

The descriptions of Brighton are suggestive and evocative, making the sunny city become a more central character in the story.

The prose is lucid; the dialogue, superb.

William Boyd's Trio is a book not to be missed and my favorite book of the year.

This was one of those books where I felt and an urge to google the author. I don't do that often. However, here, I had to.

While reading this beautiful book, I could not stop admiring William Boyd's writing. Just imagine a story told so vividly that it seems more like a movie than a book. I knew instantly- this has to be written by a screenwriter, or, at least, some type of a movie person.

I was no wrong. William Boyd is a novelist, a screenwriter. 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗼 has a complex story line, and such interesting, complex characters and their lives! I am so pleasantly surprised and happy to add a new author to my favourites list.

𝗧𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳e?

3 different people yet so similar issues: a novelist, a movie producer and an actress; a writer's block, sexuality troubles, and a drug abuse.Trust me, you are in for a ride.

Loved it.

William Boyd is undoubtedly a wonderful story teller, his characters are rich and complex, and his writing is sublime. However, I found Trio to be less of an immersive experience than previous novels. Whilst still enjoyable, i did not find myself connected to any of the characters and for this reason I felt a little disappointed.

The story centres around three main characters - Talbot Kydd, film producer; Anny Viklund, actor; and Elfrida wing, novelist. Each is troubled in their own way. Talbot is plagued by problems on his film set, and dealing with a business partner who he suspects is about to double-cross him. It is 1968, and whilst it is no longer illegal to be gay, Talbot is not open about his sexuality and leads a somewhat secretive life.

Anny is beautiful and talented, but relies on downers and uppers to get through the day, especially when ex-husband and wanted fugitive comes back into her life, demanding money to escape England and the FBI. Wanting him out of her life, she gives him what he demands, but her actions lead to a cat and mouse chase that ends in tragic circumstances.

Elfrida begins every day with vodka. She is unhappily married, and has not written a word for ten years. Creatively bereft, she spends all day every day getting sloshed.

Trio examines each of the players neuroses, their demons and weaknesses and there is no doubt that it makes for an interesting read as they all reach resolution in different ways. But, for me, there was just a lack of warmth or depth that meant I remained somewhat detached from their stories.

I was very excited to be given the opportunity to read this book as William Boyd has for a long time been one of my favourite authors. The novel has three main characters - Talbot, a film producer, Anny, an actress in the film, and Elfrida, a writer suffering from writer’s block. The three strands of the story work beautifully together and I was interested in all of them equally. I enjoyed the first half of the book but the second half is gripping so I raced through it. The main setting is Brighton in 1968, which I found appealing. I enjoyed the insight into film making in the 1960s. The characters’ lives become more and more complicated as the film nears completion. There are funny moments and sad moments, all cleverly related here by a great storyteller. I loved the ending but was sorry to finish!

The author focuses on three main characters. He introduces them at the start in separate chapters. They are all linked directly or indirectly through the production of a film. All the secondary characters exist to help flesh out the main characters. Each of these characters has a story of their own against the backdrop of the film in production. Through this setting they move on, eventually gaining some insight into their own lives..

The book starts off fairly slow with summary and description setting the scene. Then the pace picks up and the reader is hurtled towards conclusions .

The book works. The ending(s) syncing nicely. The pace is fast. Thoroughly recommend

The novel’s three main protagonists (a writer, a film producer, and an actress) are linked by the same film, the shooting of which takes place during the time of the novel (1968 Brighton) giving an intriguing insight into film-making. Like all William Boyd’s novels, it’s brilliantly written, well researched and peppered with interesting characters. Reading the novel felt effortless as it gallops from one character’s misadventures to the next, while also pausing to explore universal themes such as the quest for your real self and the extent to which you can control your life. Never dull, brilliantly pacey, amusing and sometimes sad, I found this a hugely enjoyable and satisfying read.

Despite saying in my review of Love is Blind two years ago that I felt inclined to explore William Boyd’s back catalogue, it remains the only one of his books I had read before Trio. I put that down to my ever-expanding to-read list rather than any disinclination.
The three characters around which the story pivots – film producer Talbot, novelist Elfrida and actor Anny – are introduced with few words but such precision that they quickly feel like old friends. Each has a rich enough life to sustain the story alone. Instead, we hop between them. At points, their stories overlap.
I found it easy to imagine 1968 Brighton and the film-making world. There are references to real people, others which I imagine are thinly veiled nods to others (or amalgams). I don’t think it matters whether I could identify them or not: I liked the characterisation and it creates a believable air of late-1960s Britain.
It is said that everyone has one book in them, but I can’t conceive of coming up with a good enough idea for one, never mind a whole career’s worth. And in a novel even partially about a writer or writing, two ideas are used up one! William Boyd clearly has no such lack of imagination: not only has he written many novels himself, he’s confident enough in his wellspring of ideas that he donates some to Elvira.
I wouldn’t know how to classify Trio but I did enjoy it and think it would appeal to all kinds of reader. Maybe now I really will start working my way through the backlist…