Tonkin was born in North London and studied English and French literature at
Trinity College, Cambridge University, as both an entrance scholar and a senior scholar. He worked as a lecturer in literature, before exchanging academia for journalism, initially as a staff writer and features editor on the magazine
Community Care. In 2001, Tonkin re-founded the
Independent Foreign Fiction Prize – established in 1990 to honour author and translator equally – which he co-judged until it was merged with the
Man Booker International Prize in 2015. the
Wasafiri New Writing Prize, the
Whitbread biography award, the
Commonwealth Writers Prize, the
David Cohen Prize (2007) and the
Prix Cévennes. about which
Ian McEwan said: "This is a brilliant and extremely useful guide, approachable on every level. Boyd Tonkin opens up infinite worlds of the imagination." In November 2020, Tonkin was awarded the
Benson Medal and was elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Royal Society of Literature (RSL).
Lisa Appignanesi, chair of the RSL, described Tonkin as "one of the key people in the shaping of literature in the UK." ==Bibliography==