Wilson is best known and remembered as an author, particularly of his “Tales of the Borders”. He also wrote plays and poetry and his first published work was a poem “A glance at Hinduism”.

He had also written a novel, but struggled to interest a publisher in this. He had borrowed money from his friend James Everett to go to London to meet publishers in the early 1830s. But had found them too nervous to commit to anything whilst the uncertainty of The Great Reform Act prevailed and the country seemed on the brink of uprising if The Lords continued to block this legislation. We don’t know for sure, but this was probably “The minister's daughter”, which was later serialised into 9 installments to fill the final editions of The Tales published during his life, whilst he was on his death bed and unable to contribute anything else.

Before he became editor of the Berwick Advertiser, he had submitted various poems and short stories for publication to them. Once editor, he had free reign to fill in space as he choose. If he was short of news it was a great opportunity for him to pop in one of his poems or short stories. Perhaps this is how he developed the process of writing shorter pieces.

He would also have seen James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd publish his “Winter Evening Tales” in 1820, Allan Cunningham’s “Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry” in 1822 and Walter Scott publish his “Tales of a grandfather” in 1828. He perhaps started to see this as way forward for himself. Particularly after Scott’s death in 1832 he would perhaps start to see a gap in a popular market to be filled.

His writing style and prose is actually quite good and readable. More of that is in our section on The Tales as Literature. His descriptive narrative and capture of emotions are good and his prose flows easily.

If the tales had had this quality and consistency from the pen of one author, they would no doubt be better remembered and known. They would also undoubtedly have set Wilson up as an established author with a popular following for his next endeavour.