David Boyle

David Boyle is a thinker and a writer on a range of issues from localism to public service reform. He is co-director of the thinktank New Weather, policy director of Radix UK, an advisory council member of the Schumacher Centre for New Economics in Massachusetts, and a fellow at the New Economics Foundation.

He has been at the heart of the effort to develop co-production and introduce time banks to Britain as a critical element of public service reform. He was the government’s independent reviewer on Barriers to Public Service Choice (2012-13).

He is the author of a number of books about history, social change and the history of ideas and the future – most recently Tickbox (Little, Brown, 2020). His book Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life (Flamingo, 2003) helped put the search for authenticity on the agenda as a social phenomenon. Funny Money: In search of alternative cash (Flamingo, 1999) launched the time banks movement in the UK. He has stood for Parliament, and written a number of well-received history books, including Blondel's Song: The imprisonment and ransom of Richard the Lionheart (2005), Towards the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci and the race for America (2008), Alan Turing (2014) and Before Enigma (2015).

Historical fiction series include The Berlin Affair (2018) and other Enigma books about Xanthe Schneider and his Caractacus series which began with Nor Shall my Sword Sleep (2020).