Set on a film set in 1968, the title-giving trio are producer Talbot and his main actors, American movie star Anny and English pop star Troy - and while the actors, as the cliché wills them to, promptly start an affair, the producer struggles with his homosexuality. Drama ensues, ghosts from the past appear.

This is a solid, atmospheric page turner, but I was longing for more historical context, both politically and culturally. The strong parts revolve around the classic motif of the mask: What is real, what is just pretense when it comes to the personae of the trio? These fast-paced parts are fun to read.

Trio is a rather rollicking 1960s set novel that details the lives of a number of characters who come together to work on a movie. Readers quickly begin to wonder if the movie can successfully be made as there are so many issues; some are the personal backstories of the characters, while others involve the theft of film, changes to scripts and more. There is a comic feel to much of what transpired but with some pathos underneath.

Following is a brief guide to some of the characters;

Talbot is a movie producer, married but with other proclivities. It is possible that his partner in movie making is ripping him off.

Rodrigo was known as Reggie but has aspirations for his image that lead to a name change. He is married to Elfrida but has a wandering eye.

Elfrida has written a couple of well received novels, only to then face writer’s block. Will she be able to write a novel about Virginia Woolf’s last day while she, our author, drinks to excess?

Anny and Troy are the stars of the movie. Anny’s ex is a wanted man and she may be implicated. Many of her partners have roles to play in the story.

Around the people, there are parties, theft, a cameo by Leonard Woolf and numerous subsidiary characters.

Is this book a satire? A series of character studies? A suspenseful read? Those who read this one, will each decide.

The cover of this title is appealing and invites the reader to engage. It is simple and colorful. I liked it very much.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are m

In this wild romp of a book, William Boyd takes us behind the scenes of a movie production. With colorful scenery and well developed characters the reader becomes involved in the lives of three of the people who are intimately involved with the production of the movie. With multiple twists and turns the reader is left guessing as to what will be the outcome of these peoples lives. This is a highly entertaining and well written book by a writer who is much beloved.

It is 1968 and two of the trio of the title are involved in the world of filmmaking in Brighton. The third is a once successful writer, married to a film director. Despite her descent into alcohol, she is experiencing an extended dry spell with her writing. Various other people whose lives intersect with the trio round out this character rich novel. All of them are living lives full of angst, yet there is a poignancy as each one comes to find some resolution, some peace.

I liked this better than I thought I would. The description made it seem somewhat of a farce; but it wasn’t. Yes, there were moments of humor, but also wry observations of life during an era when “the times they are a changing”……

3.5 Brighton, 1968 and our trio of the title are all connected to the filming of a movie. Anny is a young, popular American actress, Talbot, our beleaguered producer and Elfrida, married to the director. There stories are told in alternating chapters and while there are many sidecharacters these are the main three. Elfridas story is the one I found the most interesting as she had been a best selling author, but was now suffering from writer's block and a myriad of other problems.

By its very nature, movie making is play acting, pretending, creating an alternate reality. Our three characters though are also pretending off set, their inner lives hidden, secrets kept, fractured souls. All have outward dramas, fears, insecurities that manifest in different ways. The story starts out slowly and draws us into the lives and feelings of these three. How they change, how they handle their challenges is the story. Some will succeed, others will struggle, not all happy endings.

McArthur Park, the song pops up here and there as a background to the time, the ridiculous lyrics of a cake being left out in the rain. Hated it then, dislike it now, but fitting as a time setter. This is my first book by this author and was also a read with Angela and Esil. We differed on our ratings for this one. Mine is the higher as I did get drawn into these peoples lives and the wonderful writing. This reads like a tragicomedy, a dark look at the people we hide inside our outward presence to the world. I thought the character development was outstanding. Slow start, many characters presented at the onset but soon picked up the grasp of things. This author clearly has control of his writing process and it shows.

ARC from Netgalley

2.5 stars generously bumped up to 3.
Maybe it’s just my mood. I wasn’t crazy about the last book I read either. Maybe it’s just that this author is not for me . Maybe I’m missing something. There certainly are some heavy things here in the secrets that the characters keep - alcoholism, drug addiction, adultery, the difficulties of a closeted gay man in the 60’s . As serious as these things are, as I moved from chapter to chapter, I felt as if I was watching a soap opera and the depth of the story was lost for me. While this takes place in England, I couldn’t help but think of what was going on elsewhere in the world in 1968. There were a few mentions of the Vietnam War and one mention of Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated Robert Kennedy.

Elfrida Wing is a novelist without a novel in 10 yrs, a closet drinker and wife of the philandering director of a movie being filmed in England in 1968. Talbot Kidd is the movie’s producer, a closeted gay man. Anny Viklund, the starring actress, is sleeping with a younger man, her costar, but in another relationship with an older man . Oh and her ex husband is a terrorist on the lam.

I ploughed through, not liking it much. If this wasn’t a buddy read with my good friends, I would have dropped it after the first 100 pages, but more than likely before that. There was just too much going on and I felt like it was all over the place as there is a cast of additional characters. I’m going to give it 2.5 stars, a rarity for me, but I will generously round up to 3. As much of a slough as this was for me, I was interested in Elfrida’s story line and wanted to know what would happen to her. There was at least that.

I read this with Diane and Esil as one of our monthly reads . I relied on them to shed some light on what this was about.


I received a copy of this book from Knopf through NetGalley.

I Received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.

The great William Boyd never disappoints. A great romp of a novel full of life, disappointments, sadness and redemption. If you like, and are familiar with Boyd's body of work you'll definitely enjoy this novel. Brighton & Paris during the summer of 1968 & a cast of wonderful but far from perfect characters trying to get their lives in order, all of them looking for clues all over the place during a period in the late 60s full of upheavals, uncertainties and hope. But like Talbot Kydd, an endearing film producer, one of the main character in this giddy fictional trip, claims early on at the beginning, "Chacun a sa méthode.." a personal way to right one's life or else...Thank you Mr Boyd for giving me a few hours of delightful fictional fun in the midst of very trying times!

This book is set in Brighton in the late 60s, focusing on a popular actress, a film producer, and a novelist that has lacked inspiration for a time. I was immediately drawn to the novel from its summary, especially as I have found that recently I enjoy books that are set in the 60s/70s time period.

This was a character-driven novel and those books are ones I typically enjoy the most. Unfortunately, this book did not meet my expectations. I loved the historical scene, but the storyline became a bit dull and I struggled to connect with the characters (and while this may be complete surface-level commentary of mine, their names were completely ridiculous!). Talbot, an older, married man struggling with his sexuality was the character I was most invested in and empathized with; the rest, I struggled to find any care for.

I have seen that this author has favorable reviews on many other books and I would absolutely check those out - however this one was not for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The journey of reading this was nice. Constantly switching perspectives in short chapters keeps you moving forward. However, I wish there had been more intersection between the three main characters , especially since 2 of the 3 had a lot of interaction and the last one was much more separate. Not to say the every book has to have deep meaning, but this book felt like a bag of chips, 60% air.

This is a character study of three people, one man and two woman, all of whom are connected to the production of a film being made in Brighton in the watershed year 1968.

Talbot Kydd is a producer of the film with the absurd title Emily Bracegirdle’s Extremely Useful Ladder to the Moon. That this title must be changed before the movie is released is a given, but it is low on the list of priorities, considering the daily disasters of the production, including someone stealing film stock, constant script changes, and a lead actress in trouble with the law. Talbot, a WW2 veteran, stoically tackles each day’s new mess. He is less successful handling his own identity, shielded from everyone he knows by a carefully constructed secret life.

The lead actress is young American sensation Anny Viklund. She has been paired with a British pop star, Troy Blaze, in the film, and she and Troy are instantly attracted to each other. That’s a complication, what with the fact that Anny has a French lover, a radical political activist, and an American ex-husband convicted of terrorism by bombings who has escaped from prison and may be coming for her.

Elfrida Wing is the wife of the movie’s director. Elfrida has three successful novels to her credit, but hasn’t written anything for 10 years. Her marriage long ago ceased to have meaning, and she is now in an accelerating descent into life-threatening alcoholism.

Does this sound like any other William Boyd novel you’ve read? Not to me. Each of Boyd’s novels is so different from the others. I suppose that’s fairly easy to do when your specialty is character studies, but it’s still impressive. Each novel’s milieu is carefully constructed. In this case, British society in the late 60s, and the vicissitudes of film production. Boyd is so good at describing the turmoil of the film’s production that I felt tense throughout, worrying about what would happen, especially to Talbot Kydd.

Once again, William Boyd delivers an engrossing character study.

I've been a fan of WIlliam Boyd since "The New Confessions," which remains one of my favorite books, and "Restless," one of the tightest WW2 spy novels. "Trio" is Boyd in a lighthearted, more humorous mode, even though the novel does have some dark reminders about other things going on in the summer of 1968.

A film crew is gathered in Brighton to make a movie called "Emily Bracegirdle’s Extremely Useful Ladder to the Moon," a swinging 60's title if ever there was one. The producer is a charming, closeted gay man named Talbott Kydd. The star is American Anny Viklund who, it turns out, has ties to a terrorist, And Elfrida Wing, wife of the director, blocked novelist, and a creative and dedicated drunk.

There are a number of skillful farcical scenes and the book is very enjoyable, but I kept waiting for that one moment, that one shocking thing that would boost "Trio" to another level. Nothing like that happens.

"Trio" gets 3.5 stars from me because Boyd is such a fine writer. I wish he'd gone ahead with that moment.