Job:- Author and Journalist
Website:- https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk
Twitter: - @andrewwilsonaw
Introduction
Andrew Wilson is an award-winning author and journalist. His first book 'Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith' was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography prize (2003) and won an Edgar Allan Poe award for biography in 2004 and a LAMBDA Literary Award in 2003. His journalism has appeared in a wide range of newspapers and magazines. He also writes under the pseudonym E V Adamson where he is the author of psychological thrillers.
Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)
I always have lots of books on the go - and because I read so much for work, I have to carve out the time to read books for pleasure. I’ve just finished Christine Mangan’s Palace of the Drowned, set in Venice in 1966. I adored her first novel Tangerine and I loved this one just as much. I write non-fiction as well as crime fiction, and at the moment I’m working on a new book about Marilyn Monroe. So I’m reading lots of books - novels and memoirs - about old Hollywood, which is enormous fun.
Favourite book:
Too many to mention - of course! But in the list there would have to be a Christie, a Highsmith, and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.
Which two characters would you invite to dinner and why?
I’d love to sit back and observe Christie’s two greatest detectives: Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. They could compare case notes, reminisce about murderers they have known, discuss their various methods and perhaps indulge in a little light flirtation over the black coffee.
How do you relax?
I’m lucky enough to live by the sea in South Devon so I each day I make sure I go for a long walk. But often as I walk through the fields or by the beach I find that this gentle activity is conducive to solving a tricky plot point or untangling a stubborn knot in the narrative.
Which book do you wish you had written and why?
It would have to be Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. I remember devouring it when it was first published in 1992 and being blown away by its compulsive narrative, gripping characters and stylish writing. I like to reread it every couple of years.
What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.
You will do it! Growing up in a working class family in the north of England, I had no connections with writing or the arts. I always wanted to be a writer and my route was through journalism - after university, I worked as a feature writer and interviewer for national newspapers and magazines. From this I moved into biography and then into fiction. Although all three disciples are very different, I like to think that journalism helped me with discipline, deadlines and also how to tell a story.
How would you describe your latest published book?
My latest novel is one published under the pseudonym E.V. Adamson. It’s called Murder Grove (HarperCollins) and it’s about a young couple who leave London to live in an eco-village in southern Spain. Soon after arriving in this paradise, their green dream turns into a nightmare. I based it on my own experience of six years living in an eco-village in southern Spain - without the real-life murders!
With Celebrations: innocent parties, guilty pleasures being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite psychological books and why?
- The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith cleverly seduces the reader into identifying with a twisted mind - the charming psychopath Tom Ripley. This book changed the course of crime fiction.
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie. This is one of the Queen of Crime’s best books. It uses the device of multiple narrators - something which has become increasingly fashionable in recent years - to tell the story of a murder committed years before. If anyone (not familiar with Christie) proclaims that she only wrote cardboard cut-out characters I give them this to read.
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. I love Rendell’s novels - particularly her Barbara Vine ones - but this novel first published in 1977 has to be one of my favourites. The reader knows the name of the killer and the motive for the murders in the first paragraph, but the suspense is extraordinary.
If you were to rewatch a psychological film which film would it be and why?
I love Hitchcock’s Vertigo and I must have seen it a dozen or so times. I’ll never forget the first time I saw it - when the final twist was revealed I felt such a sense of shock and awe. It’s such a compelling study of obsession and when I write I often have Bernard Herrmann’s score playing in the background.
What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?
This will be my first time in person at St Hilda’s - I took part in a digital event for the festival during Covid. So I can’t wait to meet some of my heroes and heroines in the crime writing field. I’ll have to stop myself fan-boying them. But I hope to break the ice with my secret weapon - Patricia Highsmith’s dressing gown.
Information about 2023 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book tickets can be found here.
