When you combine the deepest learning and the highest readability with the most plumptious story-telling, the result is A. N. Wilson.

A. N. Wilson is the most enjoyably readable writer I know.

A. N. Wilson is the supreme man of letters. He has conquered every field: journalism, novels, biography, history – and now memoir. He is planet-brained and very funny – a vanishingly rare combination.

I am stunned, as I always am, by Wilson’s humanity and brilliance and hard honesty.

Distinguished literary figure A. N. Wilson’s exquisite memoir tells the story of the wife he fell for as a student then betrayed – and the lifetime of lust and longing that led to a deeply poignant ending.

A. N. Wilson has written many brilliant biographies and novels but never a memoir – until now. It was worth the wait. So exhilarating. And definitely not a failed promise.

Wilson is a torrentially readable autobiographer, capable of howlingly funny paragraphs, desperately sad scenes, gay slapstick, literary analysis and gossipy name-dropping in the same chapter.

…an arresting, honest, memorable book, never naïve or sloppy­, tender and forgiving towards those who have hurt Wilson, contemptuous and merciless about his own cowardice, vanity and failings.

Descriptions of life as a theological student have the mischievous, observant wit of an accomplished humourist.

…in this fascinating, searingly honest memoir [Wilson] tells more of his own life story.

Deliciously delicate barbs are scattered throughout the pages.

A. N. Wilson is the greatest living man of letters…He is proficient equally as a biographer, novelist, historian, essayist, editor and literary journalist. His every utterance is well worth pondering…

A. N. Wilson is nothing short of a genius, a searing journalist, a prolific biographer, a historian and a novelist. There will be no finer book this year.

All these accounts are fascinating, rendered with both melancholy and self-deprecating humor.

Confessions reveals a dexterous storyteller… Mr. Wilson himself turned to writing, writing, writing—as if his earnest output might one day assuage “the wistful sense with which I began to write this book, that I have never been completely sure who A.N. Wilson was.” We aren’t sure, either, but it has been an interesting ride.

Wilson’s yarn has much to recommend… A readable, often entertaining summation of a life of hard work and second thoughts.

…a poignant saga …laugh out loud, hilarious… a compelling read.. replete with acerbic humor.

Scholarly, prolific and compulsively readable … it is impossible to resist Wilson’s storytelling… From its very first pages, Confessions promises to be terrifically entertaining, and it doesn’t fail in the slightest.

Wilson knows how to tell a good story … Wilson captures a world that is smaller than today but also full of possibilities too soon passed. This may not be a confession, but it is a lament, and rightly so.

A. N. Wilson is one of the very best novelists and biographers of his generation. He is also the most intriguing of them all.

In this uproariously funny at times, and searingly – almost masochistically – honest pages, it is clear that one promise [Wilson] has been unswervingly faithful to is his promise as a writer.

…a tight, funny yarn – and the year’s best memoir, filled with eye-popping scenes and wise asides.

…Andrew Norman Wilson can write — fluidly, gracefully, and with immense literary flourish.

A must-read for devotees of Wilson’s prolific literary output, Confessions is a rambling, poetry-infused remembrance of promises made, broken and reshaped along the way.

Irresistible.

…gripping confessional memoir, by turns hilarious and poignant… There’s profound affection in this beautifully written book.

I’ve read Confessions twice with much enjoyment each time.

His memoir is, of course, highly readable; full of gossip and catty stories about the people he mixed with in the worlds of journalism, academia and publishing…A diverting read from an author who never minds giving the dirty details of people’s lives.

Highly entertaining from the first page of his lively memoir… Fans of Wilson’s writing are bound to enjoy this elegantly written, startlingly honest and wickedly funny book about a life lived to the full.