[1][2] His biography of Brendan Bracken won the 1974 Whitbread Awards and his book The Climate of Treason exposed Anthony Blunt as the "Fourth Man" in the Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring.
[2][3] He was born in the Scottish city of Dundee, and was educated at Blairs College in Aberdeen and the University of Paris.
[2] In 1965 he was the founding editor of the BBC Radio 4 programme The World At One which "gained a reputation as one of the best informed news programs and won an audience of four million".
[2] He also wrote the definitive biographies of Lord Trenchard, the father of the Royal Air Force and Erskine Childers, Irish Nationalist and author.
Boyle left uncompleted biographies on John Moore-Brabazon (pioneering aviator and politician), Moura Budberg (adventuress and spy), Arthur "Bomber" Harris, and Dick White (spymaster).