December 5th is the day on which Nelson Mandela, and, now we learn, Colin Henry Wilson, 82, died. He suffered a stroke in June 2012 and lost his ability to speak. He passed away on Thursday. Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism, the paranormal, and other topics. In terms of a fiction writer, Wilson sometimes critiqued or commented on H. P. Lovecraft…

Britain's first homegrown existentialist star, he had a huge success with his 1956 book, The Outsider

“I had taken it for granted that I was a man of genius since I was about thirteen.”

Colin wilson

I’ve just had the terrible misfortune to read Colin Wilson’s memoir and analysis of the Angry Young Men: The Angry Years (Robson, 2007). I read it because that era - Look Back in Anger and so on - was a great research interest on mine and while I don’t publish much on it now I like to keep

“I had taken it for granted that I was a man of genius since I was about thirteen.”

He skated over knowledge, it’s true, but Colin Wilson exhilarated a generation with the bold possibilities of life

British novelist Colin Wilson, best known as the author of The Outsider, dies aged 82.