A. N. Wilson is a prolific British novelist, biographer, and journalist, celebrated for his sharp satirical fiction and his definitive literary biographies. Born Andrew Norman Wilson on 27 October 1950 in Stone, Staffordshire, to a family deeply involved in the pottery industry, he was educated at Rugby School and New College, Oxford, and began his career teaching literature at Oxford for seven years before moving into full-time writing and journalism. He has written columns for The Spectator, The Daily Telegraph, and the Evening Standard.
 

Raised between the contrasting beliefs of a militantly atheist father and a devoutly Anglican mother, Wilson developed a lifelong fascination with religion and theology that runs through much of his work. He is highly decorated for his biographical writing, blending meticulous historical research with a highly readable, often controversial narrative flair. His acclaimed biographies include Tolstoy, winner of the 1988 Whitbread Award for Biography; C. S. Lewis: A Biography; Jesus, a bold and widely debated study of the life of Christ; a landmark biography of Queen Victoria that challenged many traditional perceptions of the monarch; and Iris Murdoch: A Biography, a personal account of the celebrated novelist and philosopher, who was a close friend.
 

In addition to his biographical work, Wilson is a celebrated novelist with more than twenty works of fiction to his name, and has published broad cultural histories including The Victorians and God's Funeral. He chronicled his own turbulent life and career in his candid 2022 memoir, Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises. He was formerly married to the academic Katherine Duncan-Jones, with whom he has two children.