Ian Wilson (born 1941) is a British prolific author of historical and religious books. He has written about such topics as the Shroud of Turin and life after death.
He was born in Clapham, south London, during World War II. Neither of his parents was religious. His school was nominally Church of England, but during scripture classes he was always, as he put it, "the number one sceptic". He graduated in Modern History from Magdalen College, Oxford in 1963.[1][2]
He first came across the Shroud during the 1950s, when he was in his mid-teens, in an illustrated article by World War II hero Group Captain Leonard Cheshire. It was the image on the negative of the Shroud that dealt the first blow to his agnosticism. In 1972 he converted to Roman Catholicism.[1]
Wilson is most well known for his writings on Shroud of Turin. Writing in Free Inquiry, historian Charles Freeman heavily criticized Wilson's writings on the subject, commenting "He is not taken seriously by any respected historian... Wilson has failed to provide any significant evidence from this mass of material to back his narrative. It seems to fail at every point. He provides no evidence that the Shroud existed in Jerusalem, no evidence that a burial shroud arrived in Edessa."[3]
He participated in Channel 4's three part TV series Jesus: The Evidence (1984)[4] and wrote the accompanying book of the same name.[5] The series proved to be highly controversial and sparked a national furore, marking a significant moment in the changing fortunes of religious broadcasting in the UK.[6]
He lived in Bristol, England, for twenty-six years and now resides in Brisbane, Australia, with his wife, Judith. They have two sons, Adrian and Noel.[1]
Book reviews