Angus Wilson, born on August 11, 1913, in Bexhill, England, was one of the most prominent novelists of his time, though he is largely unknown today. After working for the British Foreign Office during World War II, he released Hemlock and After (1952), his first novel, which candidly explored gay life in postwar England. Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956), his most popular book, soon followed, but by the sixties his reputation had begun to diminish. He was knighted in 1980 and died of a stroke in 1991.