Wilson, A(ndrew) N(orman) (1950– )

English novelist and biographer. His first novel was The Sweets of Pimlico (1977). Among the subjects of his biographies have been the novelists Leo Tolstoy (1988) and C S Lewis (1990), and Jesus (1992). He has also written extensively about Victorian England, especially in his non-fiction work After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World (2005).

The fiction trilogy that began with Incline Our Hearts (1988) revealed a combination of absurdist comedy and High Tory wit. ‘Lilibet’ (1984), a verse account of Queen Elizabeth II's early years, was ill received. Other novels include The Vicar of Sorrows (1993), My Name is Legion (2004), and A Jealous Ghost (2005). Wilson was literary editor of the Spectator 1981–83, and in 1990 was appointed to the same post on the London Evening Standard.