NOVELIST and screenwriter William Boyd is to be awarded the Bodleian Library’s highest honour at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Mr Boyd, 64, will receive the Bodley Medal, given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to literature, culture, science and communication.

Past winners include classicist Mary Beard, physicist Stephen Hawking, film director Nicholas Hytner, novelist Hilary Mantel, dramatist Alan Bennett and inventor of the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

A statement on the library’s website said: “Mr Boyd will give the Bodley Lecture in the University’s Sheldonian Theatre at 6pm on Thursday, March 30.

“He will appear in conversation with Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden and will discuss his life and work.

“Following the event Mr Ovenden will present him with the Bodley Medal.”

The writer is the author of 14 novels including Any Human Heart, and Costa Novel of the Year Restless.

Mr Boyd was a lecturer in St Hilda’s College in the early 1980s and it was while he was there that he started writing his first novel A Good Man in Africa.

The author has adapted many of his own novels for film, including Stars and Bars, A Good Man in Africa, Any Human Heart and Restless.

The Bodleian is a cultural partner of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival, which takes place from Saturday, March 25, to Sunday, April 2.

For more information visit the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival website oxfordliteraryfestival.org