Boynton was born in the United Kingdom and raised in Bulawayo,[1] Rhodesia where he was educated at Peterhouse Boys' School and Christian Brothers College.
In 1988, he moved to New York City where he worked as a writer and editor for Condé Nast Publications for ten years.
A year earlier, he published Last Days in Cloud Cuckooland about the end of white minority rule in South Africa.
[4][5][6] Boynton's latest book, Wild: The Life of Peter Beard: Photographer, Adventurer, Lover, was published in October 2022.
[7] He is married to travel writer, Adriaane Pielou and they have two daughters together, Emma-Louise, who works in broadcast journalism, and actress Lucy Boynton.