ABOUT JIM WILLIAMS

“Jim Williams first hit the news when his early novels had the uncanny knack of coming true. The Hitler Diaries was published nine months before the celebrated forgery came out. Farewell to Russia dealt with a nuclear disaster in the Soviet Union months before the Chernobyl disaster. Lara’s Child, his sequel to Doctor Zhivago, provoked an international literary scandal and led to his being a guest speaker at the Cheltenham Festival. Scherzo, a witty and elegant mystery set in eighteenth century Venice, was nominated for the Booker Prize. All of his fiction has been published internationally. The Argentinian Virgin is his ninth novel.”

I was born in Oldham, the son of a coal miner and a cotton mill worker and grew up in circumstances that would today be considered poor. However I had loving parents and benefitted from a good education and I was able to qualify and practice as a barrister for a number of years before working as a lawyer in industry. I still do commercial consultancy work in addition to writing.

The most important fact in my life is that I have had a long and loving marriage to a wonderful wife, and my grown-up family still gather with us most Sundays for a family dinner.

I seem to have a happy, easy-going nature and I take a great deal of pleasure in ordinary things such as walking or gardening. My wife and I enjoy theatre, ballet, opera, paintings and dancing at every possible opportunity. On the negative side, after many years of study I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m rather a silly man. It’s an accusation I would have resented and denied at an earlier stage in life, but nowadays I reject suggestions (admittedly rarely made) that I am in any way wise. Recognition of my own stupidity has been a hard won insight and I shan’t give it up lightly.

I could go on about writing and give a history of my career, but I prefer to let the books speak for themselves. My thoughts should be apparent from the various background notes on this website.

I consider autobiography an important subject and have written about it. If you would like to know more about my life and also if you want to know how to set about writing your own autobiography, to read about A Message to the Children click here