Thanks Dog.
Poor old Colin. Some of his writings were a big part of my life, years ago, and still influence me in some ways.
I never did write to him, as I usually do to favourite authors.
RIP old chap.
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I have Dreaming To Some Purpose and (of course) The Outsider.
He lived in a large house at the back of us in Gorran Haven, our next-door-neighb was a clinical psychologist,
she used to speak well of him but, he certainly didn't take too kindly to casual callers ISTR!
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Sounds a bit of a loon, but I did like....
"He was by now in a relationship with Joy Stewart, whose sister had read Wilson’s notes for his novel Ritual in the Dark (about a sadistic sex murderer, it was not published until 1960) and had mistakenly believed them to be his diary.
She told her father, who attacked the young writer with a horsewhip."
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Might I suggest, incidentally, that if anyone is drawn to this thread and "discovers" Wilson's occult stuff, rather than his crime stuff, that they then look at J W Dunne, if they haven't done so already. The "An Experiment with Time" trilogy is intriguing at least.
Colin of course invented the term "Factor X", which gets confused with a talent show only too easily. Read "The Occult" if you want his own views and interpretations, or his "Mysteries" if you want more of a history of most of the figures of the genre, main and obscure alike.
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>> Colin of course invented the term "Factor X", which gets confused with a talent show
>> only too easily. Read "The Occult" if you want his own views and interpretations, or
>> his "Mysteries" if you want more of a history of most of the figures of
>> the genre, main and obscure alike.
I think you will find it was "Faculty X "not "Factor X". He did believe in a lot of drivel didn't he?
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You're right about the Faculty X bit - well, it is at least 35 years since I read it I guess!
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One has to admire Colin Wilson's energy and spread of learning, although not the quality of his output. I won't be dancing on his grave, but I won't spend long kneeling beside it with my hat off.
Stan Tracey is another matter though, a permanent feature of Ronnie Scott's from its early days in Gerrard Street. Chapeau to him, and an inclination of the head.
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Colin Wilson RIP - Crankcase
