Wilson, A. N.

Wilson, A. N. ( Andrew Norman Wilson) (1950– ), novelist, biographer, and reviewer, born in Stone, Staffordshire, and educated at New College, Oxford. After abandoning training for the priesthood he became a teacher and then returned to Oxford to lecture in English. From 1981 to 1983 he was Literary Editor of the Spectator. His novel writing began in a vein of slightly acid social comedy with The Sweets of Pimlico (1977) and Unguarded Hours (1978). The Healing Art (1980), about a mistaken diagnosis of cancer, and Wise Virgin (1982), a study of a father–daughter relationship, were followed by Scandal (1983), and Gentlemen in England (1985). Incline Our Hearts (1989), A Bottle in the Smoke (1990), Daughters of Albion (1991), Hearing Voices (1995), and Watch in the Night (1996) form the Lampitt Papers Quintet. The Vicar of Sorrows (1993) is the story of a disillusioned clergyman's infatuation with a New Age traveller. He has also written several biographies, including those of Hilaire Belloc (1984) and C. S. Lewis (1990). His controversial study of Jesus appeared in 1992. Penfriends from Porlock (1988) is a collection of his literary criticism.