Any Human Heart writing again of a whole-life view: "I don't think there's anything wrong with going back over territory you've previously covered." Though avowedly not an (auto-)biographical novelist, Boyd acknowledged that personal experiences often subconsciously affect a writer's fiction. As in several of Boyd's novels there are parallels with the author's life: both Boyd and Mountstuart lived in Africa and France, studied at Oxford, worked in literary London and had a taste of New York. Boyd usually splits the creation of a novel into two phases: research and writing. The first phase of "Any Human Heart" took 30 months as he carefully
Map of the Human Heart $539,000 at the box office in Australia. "Map of the Human Heart" was screened out of competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. The film was nominated for the 1993 Australian Film Institute Awards where the film won as Best Film, and Vincent Ward as Best Director and Robert Joamie won in the category of Young Actor. "Map of the Human Heart" was also nominated for Best Original Music Score, Best Achievement in Sound, Editing and Cinematography categories. The film was also a winner in the 1993 Tokyo International Film Festival where Vincent Ward won the Best Artistic Contribution Award,