The Wrong Set (Faber Editions): Selected Stories

By Angus Wilson

Meet a lost icon of the queer literary world: Evelyn Waugh with sharpened teeth, introduced by Margaret Drabble.

"One of the few things I would rather run a mile than do is have an Angus Wilson character over for the evening." --Martin Amis

Illicit queer crushes on a family picnic. A nightclub singer lecturing her Communist nephew. Drunken feuds at the seedy South Kensington Hotel's staff dance. The eccentric spinsters tempting a little boy to grotesque acts.

Welcome to the singular world of Angus Wilson. An overlooked legend of the post-war queer landscape, he casts a waspish, tragicomic yet oddly tender eye across mid-century England. Jitterbugging, espresso bars, spivs, Angry Young Men, teddy boys, satanic masses in village living rooms: all of life is here in these beloved stories. Savage in their deadly anatomy of social class yet compassionate in their portrayal of misfit outsiders, these are mini Austenesque novels-of-(bad)-manners, seething with high-octane dialogue, baroque humour and macabre secrets.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571404766
• ISBN13: 9780571404766
• Release Date: January 2027
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 272 Pages