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A. N. Wilson

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For the American artist, see Andrew Norman Wilson (artist).

Andrew Norman Wilson (born in 1950)[1] is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views. He is an occasional columnist for the Daily Mail and former columnist for the London Evening Standard, and has been an occasional contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, New Statesman, The Spectator and The Observer.

Life and work

Wilson was born in Stone, Staffordshire[2] and educated at Hillstone School, Great Malvern in Worcestershire, Rugby School and New College, Oxford. Destined originally for ordination in the Church of England, Wilson entered St Stephen's House, the High Church theological hall at Oxford, but left at the end of his first year. He married the Shakespeare scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones in 1971. They had two daughters, Emily Wilson (born 1971) and Beatrice "Bee" Wilson (born 1974), and divorced in 1990.

In the early 1990s, Wilson stated publicly that he was an atheist and published a pamphlet Against Religion in the Chatto & Windus CounterBlasts series; however, religious and ecclesiological themes continue to inform his work. He claims to have lost his Christian beliefs while working on his 1990 biography of C.S. Lewis. For nearly 20 years he continued to be both a sceptic, and a prominent atheist. It was during his period of nonbelief that he wrote biographies of Jesus, St. Paul, and a history of atheism in the 19th century entitled God's Funeral, the latter describing the growth of atheism as due to combination of many influences ranging from David Hume to Sigmund Freud. These and many other of his books such as those on Leo Tolstoy (Whitbread Award for best biography of 1988), C. S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc are all simultaneously sympathetic to and critical of religious belief. However, in April 2009, he published articles in the New Statesman and Daily Mail affirming his rediscovery of faith, and conversion to Christianity, attacking at the same time in the Daily Mail article both academic and media atheists.[3] [4] Since that time, Wilson has published Dante in Love (2011) presenting a study of the great Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, as an artist and philosopher, also depicting an in-depth portrait of medieval Florence to help readers understand the literary and cultural background which engendered the Tuscan's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.

In addition to his many biographies, Wilson has also written two books covering an entire era, The Victorians (2002) and The Elizabethans (2011), the latter described as "the exhilarating story of the Elizabethan age". Significant novels of Wilson include Scandal about the Profumo affair, The Vicar of Sorrows about a clergyman who has lost his faith dealing with the death of his mother, and Dream Children about pedophilia. His 2007 novel Winnie and Wolf was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Criticism

Wilson's biography of C.S. Lewis was accused of engaging in excessive psychologizing and unwarranted conclusions by John Beversluis in a review entitled Surprised by Freud.[5] Beversluis had previously been the author of a largely negative critique of Lewis' Christian apologetics entitled C.S. Lewis and the Search for Rational Religion.

Wilson's Hitler: A Short Biography, however, was heavily criticised in a review by the historian Richard J. Evans for significant factual inaccuracies, lack of original research and analysis, and personal biases.[6]

Betjeman letter hoax

In August 2006, Wilson's biography of Sir John Betjeman was published. It was later discovered that Wilson had been the victim of a hoax. Another biographer, Bevis Hillier, sent him a forged letter which was included in the book. Wilson later claimed that he has struck back with a hidden message of his own in a reprinting of the book that is still to be discovered, a decade later.[7]

Published works

Non-fiction

  • The Laird of Abbotsford: A view of Sir Walter Scott (1980)
  • The Life of John Milton: A Biography
  • Hilaire Belloc: A Biography (1985)
  • How Can We Know? (1985)
  • Penfriends from Porlock
  • Tolstoy: A Biography (1988)
  • C. S. Lewis: A Biography (1990)
  • Against Religion: Why we should live without it (1991)
  • Jesus: A Life (1992)
  • The Faber Book of Church and Clergy (Editor) published by Faber & Faber (1992)
  • The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor published by Sinclair Stevenson (London) in (1993).
  • Paul: The mind of the Apostle (1997)
  • God's Funeral: The Decline of Faith in Western Civilization (1999)
  • The Victorians (2002)
  • Iris Murdoch As I Knew Her (2003)
  • London: A Short History (2004)
  • After the Victorians (2005)
  • Betjeman (2006)
  • Our Times (2008)
  • Dante in Love (2011)
  • The Elizabethans (2011)
  • Hitler: a short biography (2011)
  • Victoria: a life (2014)
  • The Book of the People: How to Read the Bible (2015)

Fiction

  • The Sweets of Pimlico (1977)
  • Unguarded Hours (1978)
  • Kindly Light (1979)
  • The Healing Art (1980)
  • Who Was Oswald Fish? (1981)
  • Wise Virgin (1982)
  • Scandal (1983)
  • Gentlemen in England (1983)
  • Love Unknown (1986)
  • Stray (1987)
  • The Vicar of Sorrows (1993)
  • The Tabitha Stories (1997)
  • Dream Children (1998)
  • My Name Is Legion (2004)
  • A Jealous Ghost (2005)
  • Winnie and Wolf (2007) (Longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize)
  • The Potter's Hand (2012)

A novel sequence referred to as The Lampitt Chronicles:

  • Incline Our Hearts (1988)
  • A Bottle in the Smoke (1990)
  • Daughters of Albion (1991)
  • Hearing Voices (1995)
  • A Watch in the Night (1996)

Broadcasting

Wilson has also presented several television programmes.

Title Synopsis Broadcast Broadcaster
The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood Wilson explores the life of his great hero, Josiah Wedgwood. As one of the founding fathers of the Industrial Revolution, Wedgwood was a self-made, self-educated creative giant, whose other achievements might be better known if he were not so celebrated for his pottery. 19 April 2013 BBC[8]
Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis Wilson, a biographer of Lewis, goes in search of the man behind Narnia – bestselling children's author, famous Christian writer, Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose. 27 November 2013 BBC[9]
Return to Betjemanland Wilson travels back to a landscape of beautiful houses and churches, beaches and seaside piers, where he examines the life and work of the poet and broadcaster Sir John Betjeman. 1 September 2014 BBC[10]
Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled Wilson explores the personal life of Queen Victoria through her journals and letters in this psychological portrait of Britain's longest reigning monarch. 13 November 2014
20 November 2014 		BBC[11]

Notes and references

  1. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica
  2. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. ^ A. N. Wilson (11 April 2009). "Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 9 July 2009.
  4. ^ http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2009/04/conversion-experience-atheism Why I believe again] New Statesman, 2 April 2009.
  5. ^ Beversluis, John. "Surprised by Freud". Christianity and Literature. 41 (2): 179–195. Retrieved 7 October 2016. []
  6. ^ Evans, Richard J. (12 March 2012). "Hitler: A Short Biography". New Statesman. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
  7. ^ Marre, Oliver (20 January 2006). "Pendennis". London: The Observer. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
  8. ^ BBC – The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood
  9. ^ BBC – Narnia's Lost Poet
  10. ^ BBC – Return to Betjemanland
  11. ^ BBC – Queen Victoria's Letters

External links

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