Angus Wilson: A Biography

Drabble's biography of Angus Wilson should be sold in a set along with Andrew Motion's biography of Philip Larkin. Together they represent the best of biographical writing in the English language in recent years. Wilson, unlike Larkin, has lost popularity of late. His prose seems dated in ways not easily explained by those, like Drabble, who appreciate it. Still, Wilson is a major post-war figure, popular on both sides of the Atlantic for some three decades as a novelist and biographer, chiefly of Dickens and Kipling. Drabble and many other contemporary writers studied with Wilson for a time, but he never secured a proper position. His biography is a great object lesson for novelists who quit their day jobs too soon; although able to make it for a time, Wilson's last years were rather hard-going. He drank his share of champagne for years, but in the end was scarcely able to turn out a meal. If ever there was a need for gay marriage, Wilson's life proves why.