Frances Wilson (born 1964) is an English author, academic, and critic.

Biography

Born in

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

, she attended The Mount School, York, and read English literature at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a women's college, and acce ...

. She received a DPhil on

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

and

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

from

Sussex University , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

. She taught English literature at Reading University for ten years, leaving in 2005 to become a full-time writer. She reviews for ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...

'', '' The Oldie'', ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', ''and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', and has been a judge for the Whitbread Biography Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the Baillie Gifford Prize, and was chair of the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize. She has been writer in residence at Somerset House and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, taught a

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

/'' Guardian'' Masterclass in Biography and has been a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, ele ...

since 2009. From 2016 until 2021 she taught creative writing and English literature at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the ...

. She is a co-founder of the how to Academy. Wilson was the Jean Strouse Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

from 2018 to 2019, where she worked on a biography of D.H. Lawrence, which was published by FSG in America and by Bloomsbury Circus in the UK in 2021.

Works

Wilson is the author of six books: *''Literary Seductions: Compulsive Writers and Diverted Readers'' (St. Martin's Press, 2000). *''The Courtesan’s Revenge: Harriette Wilson, the Woman Who Blackmailed the King'' (Faber & Faber, 2003). *''The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth'' (Faber, 2008) Winner of the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars s ...

's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize. *''How To Survive the Titanic; or The Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay'' (Bloomsbury, 2011) Winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for historical biography, 2012. *''Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2016, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the LA Times Book Awards, the Historical Writers' Association Non-Fiction Crown award and the BIO Plutarch Prize, named Book of the Year in ''

'', ''

TLS TLS may refer to: Computing * Transport Layer Security, a cryptographic protocol for secure computer network communication * Thread level speculation, an optimisation on multiprocessor CPUs * Thread-local storage, a mechanism for allocating vari ...

'', ''

'', and ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', and cited by Booklist as one of the ten best-reviewed books in America during 2016. *''Burning Man: The Ascent of D.H. Lawrence'' (London: Bloomsbury Circus, 2021); ''Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) Winner of the 2022 Plutarch Award, and shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She has written introductions to *

, ''A Small Boy and Others: Childhood Memoirs'' (Gibson Square Books, 2001). *Henry James, ''The Wings of the Dove'' ( Folio Society, 2005). *Henry James, ''The Ambassadors'' (Folio Society, 2006). *''The Adventures of

Casanova Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (, ; 2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, (''Story of My Life''), is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of information about the c ...

'' (Folio Society, 2007). *

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel '' Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

, ''Roxanna'' (Folio Society, 2010). *

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civiliza ...

, ''My Prizes: An Accounting'' (Notting Hill Editions, 2011). * Lorna Sage, ''Bad Blood'' ( Fourth Estate, 2020) *D.H. Lawrence, ''The Man Who Loved Islands: Sixteen Stories by D.H. Lawrence'' (riverrun editions, 2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Frances 1964 births Living people Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Academics of the University of Reading Alumni of the University of Sussex People educated at The Mount School, York Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners English literary critics Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature