Percy Colson was a British author whose books include Melba: An Unconventional Biography (1932), Victorian Portraits (1932), A Story of Christie’s (1950) and White’s, 1693–1950 (1951). In 1949 he also collaborated with the Marquess of Queensberry on Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas — a Wilde book that, in Quote Investigator’s reading, may be the very reason his epigram drifted onto Wilde’s name. He is the leading candidate for the line, not a confirmed author: the 1949 Sketch printing is simply the earliest appearance anyone has found.