Boddy was born in the village of
Baldersby,
Yorkshire. His father George Boddy was the local vicar. He studied at
Marlborough College and the
University of Cambridge; two years of medicine were replaced by studies in natural sciences, classics and literature. He met his first wife, the poet and writer
Margaret Scott, in England, and they migrated to
Tasmania in 1959. There he taught at a
Hobart high school, while Margaret developed her career as a poet and writer. His second wife, whom he married in 1968 after moving to
Sydney in 1965, was the artist
Janet Dawson. She won the 1973
Archibald Prize with a portrait of Boddy. Boddy and Dawson moved to
Binalong, from where he wrote a regular food column for
The Canberra Times. He died in April 2014, aged 80; he was survived by Janet Dawson Boddy, two children (a third son predeceased him), six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and a sister. ==Select credits==