Whatever Happened To….Robert Mcliam Wilson?
I continue my sporadic, ill-thought-out series to wonder the whereabouts of the author of Ripley Bogle. Another book I read in my late teens, Ripley Bogle really bowled me over with its sheer exuberant energy. The novel is the first-person narrative of a still young, yet aged-in-the-soul man we find living as a down-and-out in London, a Catholic refugee from the slums of Belfast with genius level IQ. A witty, amoral cynic with a fantastic turn of phrase and a seriously misanthropic attitude to anything and everything.
The “troubles” of Northern Ireland of were of course an inevitable presence in the book, but it is a tribute to Wilson’s writing that he both brilliantly encapsulated that and utterly trasnscended it with this work. Alternately black and warm hearted, everything about this book; its powers of description, its masssive scope, its pitch-perfect sureness of tone, was astounding. It mirrored Mike Leigh’s film Naked in having a central fallen protagonist traversing a chaotic modern day filth-strewn London full of outsiders, in many ways a thoroughly unlikeable character who wins us over despite ourselves through the wit and insight they bring to their misanthropy. This book came first though, has to be said.
I know its not just the hormone addled memories talking either, I re-read it a lot more recently in my early 20s and it still shone through. In fact, its one of the few novels I�ve re-read in their entirety ever. It really has that magnetic hold.
So what’s Wilson up to now? He followed it up with two other novels, Manfred’s Pain and Eureka Street, which I must confess I’ve not read, but I really should. If they’ve got an ounce of Ripley Bogle’s invention I can’t go wrong. Meanwhile, Wilson seems to have gone silent since 1996. Oh, except for an interview during 1998 during which he described Manfred’s Pain as shit. A great shame. Surely more than ever before, this age cries out for a beautifully expressed nihilist to lay out the dank sight or site as shite before us?
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Mr Wilson. He Dead.
- Tony Wilson Speaks
- Tony Wilson Reprise
- Tony Wilson: The Rebirth Of Cool
- Reading in 2007 - Tenuous Intent
Make A Comment: ( 8 so far )
8 Responses to “Whatever Happened To….Robert Mcliam Wilson?”
Susan
December 21st, 2005
Wilson was the writer in residence at the University of Ulster at Coleraine when I was there in the mid 90’s. He was in charge of a creative writing course, which was part of the English Lit program. I never took the course but remember several friends of mine who did saying he was a compulsive chain smoker, smoking up to 80 Silk Cuts a day!
I also recall seeing a program on the BBC I think which he presented. It was an investigative journalism piece where he examined how much had really changed since the cease fire. I remember thinking he could have a career in broadcasting, he had good screen presence and came across well.
I read Ripley Bogle while studying and found it immensely well written and apparently it was to some extent autobiographical.
Stephen Fawcus
December 21st, 2005
Thanks Stephen and Susan.
Stephen - I remember smoking shit-loads of cigarettes featured very heavily in Ripley Bogle’s narrative, good to Wilson had put the research in!
Susan -great news. Roll on twelve months time!
Ben G
December 22nd, 2005
I also remember the programme that Stephen mentioned. Wilson went into a sports shop in Belfast with a camera crew to buy a baseball bat. (There are no baseball teams in Northern Ireland. Paramilitaries used them to dole out punishment beatings.) Wilson left the shopkeeper in no doubt that he was going to use to bat for nefarious purposes. The shopkeeper had no problems in selling it to him.
Also, the BBC made a two-part drama out of Eureka Street that was pretty good.
Adrian.
Anonymous
December 22nd, 2005
I’d vaguely heard of the BBC drama Eureka Street, but didn’t see it and had no idea Wilson was involved with it. Until Adrian and Stephen spaketh I’d had no idea he’d been on the telly at all. Thanks all. I’m looking forward to The Extremists, and may dip into another beforehand.
Ben G
December 22nd, 2005
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Sexy Lady
April 9th, 2008
From being stunned as a raw youth reading Ripley Bogle, I’d have to generally agree with Wislon’s feelings for Manfred’s Pin. Not a lot to recommend it, as I remember. Haven’t read Eureka St.
Andrew
June 20th, 2008
Read Eureka Street. It is his best work to date. If you can get hold of the TV series watch it too … a great dramatisation … tragically not released by the BBC.
Simon
September 9th, 2008
Rumours of a new novel are confirmed on Amazon. The synopsis for The Extremists, to be published by Secker & Warburg in December 2006, reads: “Meet Judas, a feckless thirtysomething whose past is littered with wrecked love affairs, his father an atheist who lurks outside churches telling people it’s made to speak to the invisible man. All his life his mother has told him the maternal instinct is a fiction.”
Also, according to an entry by Ian Sansom (who I would say speaks on good authority) for the British Council site, his cat, �Catty Wilson, Owner of Irish Author Robert McLiam Wilson�, has its own website: http://www.visi.com/~danda1/