Colin Wilson, Adrift In Soho

Nicolas Tredell (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1961

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Adrift in Soho

(1961), Colin Wilson’s second novel, is an engaging, often very funny existential picaresque tale which evokes bohemian life in 1950s London while also questioning the kind of freedom it represents. By Wilson’s own account,

Adrift

began as “a collaboration with an old Soho friend”, an actor called Charles Belchier (the original of Charles Compton Street in the first US edition of the novel, cited in this entry; in the first UK edition, he is called James Compton Street, possibly for fear of a libel action if Belchier’s real first name were used). After the success of Wilson’s

Outsider

(1956), Belchier had asked for his help in finding a publisher for an unfinished autobiographical work called

The Other Side of the Town

. Wilson found this a fascinating fragment…

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3059 words

Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Adrift In Soho". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23915, accessed 10 May 2024.]

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