Thomas Wright's magnum opus, Oscar's Books, grew out of a strange obsession.

When the Oxford author was 16, he picked up a copy of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and liked it so much he read it again — and again — until he had read it about 20 times, and decided that he wanted to read all of the flamboyant genius's books.

A pupil at St Thomas More RC School in Bedford at the time, he decided to try for Wilde's old college, Magdalen in Oxford, and got in, studying there from 1991-94.

For two years, he lived in a room close to Wilde's old room, and near the fireplace from Wilde's home in Chelsea, which had been acquired by the college.

"It was great to have a glass of wine and lean against the same fireplace as Wilde," the author told The Guide, as he strolled down London's Oxford Street on his way to a radio interview to chat about his new book.

In 2000, Wright's Table Talk Oscar Wilde, a portrait of Wilde the storyteller was published, but this simply whetted the author's appetite to conduct more research.

He discovered that on Wednesday, April 24, 1895, Wilde's books were sold outside his home in Tite Street, Chelsea, and that a catalogue for the sale survived. The sale, following the devastating court case that led to Wilde's imprisonment, was a great starting point for Wright's book.

The writer added: "I thought it would a good idea to find out more about Wilde through the books he owned — it's the biography of a reader, which I think provides a new way of looking at Wilde.

"Wilde probably had about 2,500 books and in the catalogue of the sale following the court case about 400 books are listed, which was a good place to start.

"The inventory of the sale gave me lots of information about the books Wilde owned, and there are further clues in his letters and writings."

Wright, 35, lives off Cowley Road, and spends half the year writing and the rest teaching English language and literature in Genoa, Italy.

He said he was "heavily indebted" to the Bodleian Library, and to Magdalen College, for allowing him to look through archive material of Wilde's letters and plays.

The author added: "The response to the book so far from critics has been very positive and it's great when people appreciate the efforts you have made.

"I have always found Wilde's work so challenging, witty and fresh, even though it was written more than 100 years ago.

"I decided to read all his books, and then all the books that interested him."

Wright's Wildean obsession started to pay off when the Royal Society of Literature awarded him a £5,000 grant to help him research the book.

He immediately blew the cash on Oscar Wilde's original copy of a volume by Swinburne.

Wright was thrilled to find the book contained lots of Wilde's annotations in the margins, and such enthusiasm, and attention to detail, shines through in this scholarly, yet entertaining read.

*Oscar's Books by Thomas Wright is published by Chatto and Windus, price £16.99 published by Headline, price £19.99.