Gordon Maclean Williams (20 June 1934 – 20 August 2017) was a Scottish author of more than 20 novels. Notable among his books is From Scenes Like These, shortlisted for the 1969 Booker Prize, and The Siege of Trencher's Farm, which was adapted for the controversial Sam Peckinpah film, Straw Dogs. Williams was a scriptwriter for films adapted from his own novels as well as for books by other authors.

He also worked as a ghostwriter for the autobiographies of footballers Bobby Moore and Terry Venables as well as manager Tommy Docherty. Williams collaborated with Terry Venables, using the shared pseudonym P. B. Yuill, to co-write four novels and create the 1978 television series Hazell.

Early life and education Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, in Scotland, Williams was the son of a police constable who had moved south from Aberdeenshire. He was educated at the John Neilson Institution, leaving aged 16 to become a cub reporter for the Johnstone Advertiser.

Career Following national service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Germany, he moved to London to work as a journalist. He wrote for television and was the author of several novels, including From Scenes Like These (1968), shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1969, Walk, Don't Walk (1972) and Big Morning Blues (1974). Other early novels include The Camp (1966), The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1967) and The Upper Pleasure Garden (1970).

He was a ghostwriter for the autobiographies of association footballers Bobby Moore, Terry Venables and manager Tommy Docherty.

Williams' experiences in the RAF informed his second published novel, The Camp.Tait, Bob (1981), Scots Apart: The Novels of James Kennoway and Gordon Williams, in Bold, Christine (ed.), Cencrastus No. 5, Summer 1981, pp. 20–22. In 1971, his novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm was controversially filmed as Straw Dogs. Sam Peckinpah's cinematic treatment marked a watershed in the depiction of sexual violence in the cinema, although the film's most controversial scenes are absent from the book. Other film work includes The Man Who Had Power Over Women, from his own novel, and Tree of Hands, as scriptwriter from a Ruth Rendell novel. Williams also wrote the book of Ridley Scott's film The Duellists.

In 1976, film producer Harry Saltzman employed Williams to rewrite the script for The Micronauts. Although the film was never made, Williams' novelisation was published in 1977; he subsequently wrote two sequels.

While working as commercial manager of association football club Chelsea, he renewed his collaboration with Venables, resulting in four co-written novels. From the novels grew the 1978 TV series Hazell, which the pair co-wrote under the shared pseudonym P. B. Yuill. Under the name Jack Lang, Williams also wrote paperbacks "for £300 a time".

He declined director Bill Forsyth's invitation to write the script for the 1981 film Gregory's Girl.

Death Williams died on 20 August 2017 at the age of 83.

Bibliography

Non-fiction A Hundred Years of Protest and Progress, official history of the London Trades Council, 1860–1960, 1960 Acker Bilk, biography; May Fair Books, 1962

Novels The Last Day of Lincoln Charles; London: Secker & Warburg, 1965; New York: Stein & Day, 1966 The Camp; London: Secker & Warburg, 1966; Allison & Busby, 1980 The Man Who Had Power Over Women; London: Secker & Warburg, 1967; New York: Stein & Day, 1967 The Hard Case (as Jack Lang); Mayflower, 1968 From Scenes Like These; London: Secker & Warburg, 1968; New York: William Morrow, 1969; London: Allison & Busby, 1980 (in Growing up in the West, Canongate, 2003) The Biter (as Jack Lang); Mayflower, 1968 The Siege of Trencher's Farm (filmed as Straw Dogs); London: Secker & Warburg, 1969; New York: William Morrow, 1969 The Upper Pleasure Garden; London: Secker & Warburg, 1970; New York: William Morrow, 1970 Walk, Don't Walk; London: Quartet, 1973, Allison & Busby, 1980; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1972 The Bornless Keeper (as P. B. Yuill); Macmillan, 1974 Big Morning Blues; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974 The Duellists (novelisation of Ridley Scott film based on screenplay by Gerald Vaughan-Hughes); London: Fontana, 1977 Pomeroy, an American Diplomat; London: Michael Joseph, 1983

With Terry Venables They Used to Play on Grass; London: Odhams, 1972 Hazell Plays Solomon (as P. B. Yuill); Penguin, 1977 Hazell and the Three Card Trick (as P. B. Yuill); Penguin, 1977 Hazell and the Menacing Jester (as P. B. Yuill); Penguin, 1977

Ghosted The Book of Soccer, edited by Bobby Moore; Denis Law's Book of Soccer; The Book of Soccer (Bobby Moore); My Soccer Story by Bobby Moore (autobiography); Thirteen Against the Bank, by Norman Leigh; Penguin, 1977

Science fiction The Micronauts: New English Library, 1977; Bantam Books, August 1977 The Microcolony: Bantam Books, 1979; U.K. title: Micronaut World; New English Library, June 1981 Revolt of the Micronauts: Bantam Books, 1981; New English Library, 1981

Contributor "The Horseshoe Inn", in Prevailing Spirits: A Book of Scottish Ghost Stories (Giles Gordon, ed.): Hamish Hamilton, 1976

References

External links

D. J. Taylor, "Gordon who?" (interview), The Guardian, 22 October 2003.