Gaddafi and Colin Wilson

Both the Hierophant’s Apprentice’s review of Colin Wilson’s classic work The Occult [ FT412:5456] and SD Tucker’s portrait of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi [ FT412:50-53] omit mention of a remarkably fortean connection between the two.

It transpires that Gaddafi was a great admirer of Wilson’s first book The Outsider (1956), a fact that emerged during an interview he gave to Judith Miller of the NewYork Times in early 1986. In the resulting article,

‘A Rare Glimpse of Colonel Qaddafi’, she records the Colonel’s various pastimes and states that “Among his favourite books, he said, were Arabic translations of Alex Haley’s Roots, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and a book by the British author Colin Wilson titled The Outsider.” (NewYork Times, 11 Jan, 1986).

A further admiring reference to Wilson occurs in the transcript of a speech delivered by Gaddafi on 2 December 1993 to an assembly of “writers, journalists, poets and artists”. In criticising the intellectual standards of Western leaders, he stated:

Do they meet every writer who is creative or has done something of note? Or do they just meet Rushdie? Lincoln or whatever his name is; the one who wrote ‘The Outsider’ [someone in audience shouts ‘Colin Wilson’]. Colin Wilson! Why did they not meet him? Why did the US President not invite him and said to him: O Colin Wilson, come; your book ‘The Outsider’ is controversial, and I do not know what; it is serious and so on….

At various points in his diverse output Colin Wilson critically discussed the psychology and psychopathology of egotistical and self-absorbed personalities including political dictators (Wilson’s so-called ‘Right-Man’ theory originally derived from observations by writer AE van Vogt). However, it seems highly unlikely this paradigm was ever contemplated or absorbed by Libya’s one-time ruler, judging by his record as discussed by SD Tucker. Sadly, what Wilson would have made of this connection is destined now to always remain a matter of speculation.

Still, given such a connection, it does rather make you wonder just who might be reading Fortean Times these days….

Alan Murdie By email

• Re the article on Colonel Gaddafi and cult leader David Berg: it is worth pointing out that Gaddafi often propagated conspiracy theories such as his claim that both MI5 and Mossad murdered Princess Diana so that William, the future king of England, would not have a Muslim half-sibling who would cause constitutional problems on a scale not seen since the abdication crisis of 1936, and also because Diana was about to visit Gaza and would highlight the plight of the Palestinians and thus turn world opinion against Israel. He was adamant about this for the rest of his time in power and the conspiracy theory did gain a large number of followers in the Arab world, even in quarters that were opposed to his politics and regime.

Phil Brand London