Robert Wilson was born in 1957, the son of an RAF pilot. After graduating from Oxford in English, he was forced to re-think his sporting career following a motoring accident.
He travelled extensively, touring the states and travelling to Nepal in a VW van before working in Crete on archaeological tours. He then took jobs in shipping and advertising but soon grew restless.
Wandering is in Rob’s nature and he can hardly believe he makes his living sitting at a desk typing. After marrying in 1986 he spent a year travelling across Africa with his wife, an experience he recommends “if you want to know if you can live with someone for the rest of your life… the desert tells you things about yourself”. It would also teach him everything he needed to know to write his atmospheric African novels.
He continued work in shipping in West Africa until eventually his English degree caught up with him: he fell in love with Portugal and began renovating an isolated farmhouse while beginning to write his first novel.
He is now the writer of eight critically acclaimed novels. A Small Death in Lisbon won the CWA Gold Dagger for best novel and his Javier Falcon have been published to critical acclaim. The Hidden Assassins is the latest in the series, published in July.
Robert Wilson on Book Army