Book description
Angus Wilson's first volume of short stories, The Wrong Set was
first published in 1949 to immense critical acclaim. The collection is
a brilliantly funny exposure of the protective devices with which
people seek to mask deep-laid egotism. There is the wallowing in
self-adulation on the part of the 'crazy Cockshott family', as they
delight to dub themselves. There is the search for really nice
standards on the part of Vi, singer at the 'Passion Fruit' nightclub -
as hopelessly bemused a spirit as ever lived in sin at Earl's Court
and attempted to lecture a young Communist nephew with untidy hair and
spectacles. There is the humbug of the bullying new curator at the
provincial Art Gallery. And the staff dance at the South Kensington
hotel, where lives the lady who spends her life trying to achieve 'a
Knightsbridge appearance on a Kensington purse', and where, as the
evening progresses and the drinks begin to tell, the lady-like façades
and gentlemanly courtesy of the clientele crack up with a vengeance.
One of Britain s most distinguished novelists Sir Angus Wilson was
born in 1913. Educated at Westminster and Merton College, Oxford he
joined the British Museum as a cataloguer before being called for
service in 1941. His literary career began with a collection of
short-stories published in 1949. These were followed by other
short-story collections, novels and plays. Co-founder with Malcolm
Bradbury of the MA programme in creative writing at the University of
East Anglia, Wilson was appointed professor in 1967. Chair of many
literary panels, including the Booker prize, and campaigner for
homosexual equality he was knighted in 1980. He died in 1991.
