Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises

Description

Here at last is the story of one of the leading contemporary critics, literary and otherwise, who has become celebrated for his waspish and subversive writing. As a writer, Wilson is polymathic. As the literary editor of the Spectator and Evening Standard he pioneered the commissioning of celebrity reviewers like the former Duchess of Devonshire and her sister Diana Moseley. He has published a number of well received novels but he is also the master of the biographer's art. His prize-winning biographies of C. S. Lewis and Tolstoy remain classics, and for the latter he taught himself Russian. But now, Wilson turns the light upon himself. At Oxford, he married his tutor but then entered St Stephen's House to train for the Anglican priesthood. His portrait of this Anglican seminary and its high camp ethos is hilarious and full of anecdote, yet he also describes how he was on the threshold of a stellar career as writer and critic. His account of being a Booker Prize judge is witty and cynical, as is his description of how his close friend the novelist Beryl Bainbridge failed for the fifth time to get beyond the Booker shortlist and finally win. The bridesmaid who never became the bride. This sharp and gossipy memoir will delight Wilson's admirers who are legion. But it will also give others an exceptional insight into the charade which is the literary and publishing world in our times.

A. N. Wilson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. His novel, Winnie and Wolf, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His last book The Mystery of Charles Dickens was published in 2020 to great critical acclaim and is at present being dramatized by Andrew Davies for British television.

When you combine the deepest learning and the highest readability with the most plumptious story-telling, the result is A. N. Wilson ... * Stephen Fry * A. N. Wilson is the most enjoyably readable writer I know. * Antonia Fraser * A. N. Wilson is the supreme man of letters. He has conquered every field: journalism, novels, biography, history - and now memoir. He is planet-brained and very funny - a vanishingly rare combination. * Harry Mount * I am stunned, as I always am, by Wilson's humanity and brilliance and hard honesty. * Deirdre McCloskey * Distinguished literary figure A. N. Wilson's exquisite memoir tells the story of the wife he fell for as a student then betrayed - and the lifetime of lust and longing that led to a deeply poignant ending. * Daily Mail * A. N. Wilson has written many brilliant biographies and novels but never a memoir - until now. It was worth the wait. So exhilarating. And definitely not a failed promise. * Telegraph * Wilson is a torrentially readable autobiographer, capable of howlingly funny paragraphs, desperately sad scenes, gay slapstick, literary analysis and gossipy name-dropping in the same chapter. * John Walsh, Sunday Times * ...an arresting, honest, memorable book, never naive or sloppy , tender and forgiving towards those who have hurt Wilson, contemptuous and merciless about his own cowardice, vanity and failings. * Literary Review * Descriptions of life as a theological student have the mischievous, observant wit of an accomplished humourist. * The Spectator * ...in this fascinating, searingly honest memoir [Wilson] tells more of his own life story. * Jacqueline Wilson, bestselling children's author * Deliciously delicate barbs are scattered throughout the pages. * The Tablet * A. N. Wilson is the greatest living man of letters...He is proficient equally as a biographer, novelist, historian, essayist, editor and literary journalist. His every utterance is well worth pondering... * The Oldie * A. N. Wilson is nothing short of a genius, a searing journalist, a prolific biographer, a historian and a novelist. There will be no finer book this year. * Rory Knight Bruce, The Field * All these accounts are fascinating, rendered with both melancholy and self-deprecating humor... * A STARRED REVIEW from Booklist * Confessions reveals a dexterous storyteller... Mr. Wilson himself turned to writing, writing, writing-as if his earnest output might one day assuage "the wistful sense with which I began to write this book, that I have never been completely sure who A.N. Wilson was." We aren't sure, either, but it has been an interesting ride. * Wall Street Journal * Wilson's yarn has much to recommend... A readable, often entertaining summation of a life of hard work and second thoughts. * Kirkus Reviews * ...a poignant saga ...laugh out loud, hilarious... a compelling read.. replete with acerbic humor. * City Book Review * Scholarly, prolific and compulsively readable ... it is impossible to resist Wilson's storytelling... From its very first pages, "Confessions" promises to be terrifically entertaining, and it doesn't fail in the slightest. * The Washington Post * Wilson knows how to tell a good story ... Wilson captures a world that is smaller than today but also full of possibilities too soon passed. This may not be a confession, but it is a lament, and rightly so. * The Washington Examiner * A. N. Wilson is one of the very best novelists and biographers of his generation. He is also the most intriguing of them all. * Church Times * In this uproariously funny at times, and searingly - almost masochistically - honest pages, it is clear that one promise [Wilson] has been unswervingly faithful to is his promise as a writer. * Andrew Roberts, The Spectator * ...a tight, funny yarn - and the year's best memoir, filled with eye-popping scenes and wise asides. * Telegraph * ...Andrew Norman Wilson can write - fluidly, gracefully, and with immense literary flourish. * Washington Independent Review of Books * A must-read for devotees of Wilson's prolific literary output, Confessions is a rambling, poetry-infused remembrance of promises made, broken and reshaped along the way. * Shelf Awareness * Irresistible. * The Tablet's Books of the Year * ...gripping confessional memoir, by turns hilarious and poignant... There's profound affection in this beautifully written book. * Daily Mail *