A prolific journalist and author of non-fiction, Wilson has also written over 20 works of fiction, for which he has won the Somerset Maugham Prize and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His novels also include such historical works as "The Potter’s Hand" (a study of the family life of Josiah Wedgwood), "Resolution", a fictional account of Captain James Cook's second voyage, and "Scandal" about the Profumo affair. His 2007 novel "Winnie and Wolf", about the relationship between Adolf Hitler and Richard Wagner's English daughter-in-law, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Novels set in the present include "The Vicar of Sorrows", about a clergyman who has lost his faith dealing with the death of his mother, and "Dream Children" about paedophilia.