David Boyle is the author of a range of books about history, social change, politics and the future. He has been editor of a number of publications including Town & Country Planning, Community Network, New Economics, Liberal Democrat News and Radical Economics. He is co-director of the thinktank New Weather, policy director of Radix, an advisory council member of the Schumacher Centre for New Economics in Massachusetts, and a fellow at the New Economics Foundation.
He has been at the heart of the effort to develop co-production and introduce time banks to Britain as a critical element of public service reform. He was recently the government’s independent reviewer on Barriers to Public Service Choice (2012-13).
He is the author of a number of books about history, social change and the history of ideas and the future, notably Tickbox (Little, Brown, 2020). His book Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life (Flamingo, 2003) helped put the search for authenticity on the agenda as a social phenomenon. Funny Money: In search of alternative cash (Flamingo, 1999) launched the time banks movement in the UK. His work on the history and future of money has also been covered in books and pamphlets like Why London Needs its own Currency (2000), Virtual Currencies (2000), The Money Changers: Currency reform from Aristotle to e-cash 2002), The Little Money Book (2003) and Money Matters (2009).
He has stood for Parliament, and written a number of well-received history books, including Blondel’s Song: The imprisonment and ransom of Richard the Lionheart (2005), Towards the Setting Sun: Columbus, Cabot, Vespucci and the race for America (2008), Alan Turing (2014) and Before Enigma (2015).
He was for twelve years a member of the federal policy committee of the Liberal Democrats, and advises politicians on a range of issues including localism and the future of volunteering.
See my Wikipedia entry.