[1] Wilson was born in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, on 6 June 1967 and read English Literature at King's College, London, graduating in 1988.
He studied for the post-graduate diploma in periodical journalism at City University, London.
[2] Wilson is the author of Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith (Bloomsbury, 2003),[3] The Man Who Invented Sex: A Life of Harold Robbins (Bloomsbury, 2007),[4] The Lying Tongue (Canongate in UK, Atria in US, 2007),[5] Shadow of the Titanic: The Extraordinary Stories of Those Who Survived (Simon & Schuster, 2012),[6] Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted (Simon & Schuster in UK, Scribner in the US, 2013),[7] Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin (Simon & Schuster, 2015).
[8] Wilson has also written a series of novels featuring Agatha Christie as a character.
Adamson, he is the author of the psychological thriller Five Strangers (HarperCollins, 2021) [13] Wilson's journalism has appeared in the Observer, the Guardian, the Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday, Daily Telegraph, and Tatler.