Neil Wynn Williams (14 February 1864 – 1 February 1940) was a British novelist, writer and contributor of short stories and articles to the periodicals and journals of his time.
Life Neil Wynn Williams was born in Hampstead on 14 February 1864, the son of William Rudyard Wynn Williams and Elizabeth Blackwell Campbell Williams (née Lambert).Certificate of Baptism, London, England. Births and Baptisms, 1813–1906 He was educated at Bedford Modern School between 1887 and 1891.School of the Black and Red, A History of Bedford Modern School, by Andrew Underwood, 1981. Updated by Peter Boon, 2010. Paperback, p. 294
Wynn-Williams's initial published works were two volumes of Greek folklore, Tales And Sketches of Modern Greece that was published in 1894 and The Bayonet That Came Home: A Vanity Of Modern Greece that was published in 1896. In 1904 he was asked to contribute to a writer's view of Paris and wrote about the catacombs of the city.
Wynn-William's science fiction novel, The Electric Theft, was first published in 1906. Although critically judged as having ‘little literary merit’, the novel is suggestive of Ian Fleming’s later James Bond novels: the hero, Reginald Burton, discovers that an anarchist, Boleroff, is in command of a vast electrolytic lake under London that he harnesses for his own means, cutting off London's electricity supply. All the while Burton is having an affair with a daughter of a wealthy British capitalist. At the end of the novel, Boleroff accidentally kills himself.
Wynn-Williams died in Bedford on 1 February 1940.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966 He and his brother, Douglas Wynn Williams, had been accomplished oarsmen in their schooldays and endowed a rowing prize for the fastest pair at their old school. Wynn-Williams was survived by his wife, whom he had married in London on 4 September 1903, and three children.London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754–1921
Selected bibliography Tales And Sketches of Modern Greece. Published by The Bedford Publishing Co., London, David Nutt, 1894 The Bayonet That Came Home: A Vanity Of Modern Greece. Published by Edward Arnold, London and New York City, 1896 Greek Peasant Stories; Or, Gleams And Glooms Of Grecian Colour. Published by Digby, Long & Co., London, 1899 An Extraordinary Story. Published by George Newnes, Ltd, London, 1899 Lady Haife. A Novel, Etc.. Published London, 1901 The Electric Theft. Published by Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, 1906
References
External links Neil Wynn Williams at WorldCat Identities The Electric Theft at The Open Library Audiobook, The Catacombs of Paris, by Neil Wynn Williams