Angus Wilson was a critic, lecturer and man of letters.
Pre-eminently though he was a novelist, indeed, in the words of
Paul Bailey 'no other novelist of his generation offered as
complete and detailed a portrait of English society.' His first
volume of stories, The Wrong Set (1949) - reissued in Faber Finds -
launched Wilson as one of the most controversial, colourful and
entertaining figures on the post-war literary scene, and he rapidly
developed into a major novelist, maturing from enfant terrible to
elder statesman in the process. Margaret Drabble's biography traces
the influences of his bizarrely extended family, his years as a
librarian at the British Museum - interrupted by a grim spell in
the code-breaking huts at Bletchley Park - and his unexpected
liberation as a writer. It portrays the dizzying progress of a
writer and enthusiast whose work was at the forefront of English
fiction for the second-half of the twentieth-century: above all it
is a portrait of an artist of enormous courage, a man who
confronted challenge to the very end. In his later years he became
both influence and mentor for a younger generation of writers,
including Ian McEwan, Rose Tremain and Margaret Drabble herself.
Margaret Drabble knew Angus Wilson from the late 1960s and her
biography is enriched with personal knowledge and recollections.
'He has been fortunate in his biographer . . . Altogether, with the
assistance and consent of Tony Garrett, the dedicatee and second
hero of the book, she has given a minute, intimate and candid
account . . . of Wilson's hectic life.' Frank Kermode, London
Review of Books 'A solid tribute of scholarship and affection'
Penelope Fitzgerald, Independent 'No one interested in the story of
modern fiction can fail to find this life fascinating. Its virtues
- a bright, crowded canvas, warmth, a witty, polished style - are
those of Wilson's novels . . . Through it all shines so human a
picturer of a courageous, doubting, eccentric, driven writer.'
Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
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