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'Andrew Norman Wilson' (born 27 October, 1950), is an English writer, known for his critical biographies, novels and works of popular and cultural history. He is also a columnist for the London ''Evening Standard'' and an occasional contributor to the ''Daily Mail''. In 2006, he was the victim of a notable literary hoax played by a rival biographer.

Contents

Life and work

Betjeman letter hoax

Notes and references

Bibliography

Non-fiction

Fiction

External link

Life and work

A. N. Wilson was educated at 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.
His particular slant on biography, and to some extent his take on the Victorian era topics he has covered in ''God's Funeral'' and ''The Victorians'', can be traced to his early failure to take Holy Orders and become a priest. His books on Leo Tolstoy, C. S. Lewis, Hilaire Belloc, and Jesus Christ are all critical of religious belief.
Despite a reputation gained early in his career of being a 'Young Fogey', Wilson is also noted for mischief, for example in comments on the parentage of Queen Victoria, and his dissenting views, which many found disrespectful, of Iris Murdoch.
He has also excited controversy through the expression of his views on the Middle East, at one point stating that Israel no longer has a right to exist. (When asked if this should be accomplished by force he refused to answer.)

Betjeman letter hoax

In August 2006 Wilson's biography of Sir John Betjeman was published. It was then discovered that he had been the victim of a hoax and had included a letter (to Anglo-Irish writer, Honor Tracy) which purported to be by Betjeman detailing a previously unknown love affair, but which he acknowledged to be a fiction, when it was pointed out that it contained an acrostic spelling out an insulting message to him.^[1]
The letter was sent to Wilson by "Eve de Harben", who then wrote to a journalist to reveal the hoax. The acrostic spelt out "''AN Wilson is a shit''" and "Eve de Harben" is an anagram of "''Ever been had''". Bevis Hillier, Wilson's arch rival and Betjeman's authorised biographer, was an immediate suspect but initially denied all knowledge. A week after the hoax was publicised, however, Hillier admitted responsibility, stating that "When a newspaper started billing Wilson’s book as 'the big one', it was just too much."^[2]
Wilson later claimed that he has struck back with a hidden message of his own in a reprinting of the book. That has yet to be discovered.^[3]

Notes and references

1. Betjeman love letter is horrid hoax Richard Brooks
2. Betjeman biographer confesses to literary hoax Richard Brooks
3. Pendennis Oliver Marre

Bibliography

Non-fiction

★ ''The Laird of Abbotsford''

★ ''The Life of John Milton''

★ ''Hilaire Belloc''

★ ''How Can We Know?''

★ ''Penfriends From Porlock''

★ ''Tolstoy''

★ ''C. S. Lewis: A Biography''

★ ''Jesus''

★ ''The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor''

★ ''Paul''

★ ''

★ ''The Victorians''

★ ''Iris Murdoch As I Knew Her''

★ '' (2004)

★ ''After the Victorians'' (2005)

★ ''Betjeman'' (2006)

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)

★ ''Dream Children'' (1998)

★ ''My Name Is Legion'' (2004)

★ ''A Jealous Ghost'' (2005)

★ ''Winnie and Wolf'' (2007) (Longlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize)

★ 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)

External link

★ "The internet is destroying the world as we know it", ''Daily Mail'', 8 June 2007.