Boyle read English at
Cambridge University, taught in a
Sheffield comprehensive school and in
Egypt and worked in publishing, including for several years at
Faber and Faber. In 1980 he married painter
Madeleine Strindberg. He is well known for his 2001 book of poems
The Age of Cardboard and String, which had favourable reviews from
The Guardian ("The voice is quite beguiling: completely unpretentious yet still resonant and lyrical; linguistically precise and emotionally evasive, often at the same time. We like that.") and
Magma Poetry ("['My Alibi'] is an exquisite distillation of much of what Boyle has to say". In 2007, as a result of his difficulty in getting
24 for 3 published, he established
CB editions, a small press dedicated to novellas, translations, and writing in other genres often neglected by mainstream publishers. Titles published by CB editions have won awards including the
McKitterick Prize, the
Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize, the Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, and the
Republic of Consciousness Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the
Goldsmiths Prize, the
Guardian First Book Award, and
Forward Prizes for Poetry. Boyle's
An Overcoat: Scenes from the Afterlife of H.B. (2016), written under the pseudonym "Jack Robinson", was featured in
The Guardians "Nicholas Lezard's choice" column in April 2017, with
Lezard concluding: "I can't think of a wittier, more engaging, stylistically audacious, attentive and generous writer working in the English language right now". ==Awards==