Gordon M. Williams is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. Born in Paisley, he moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to work as a journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

. He has written for television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and is the author of over twenty novels including From Scenes Like These, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1969, Walk Don't Walk, Big Morning Blues and Growing up in the West. Other novels include The Camp, The Man Who Had Power Over Women and The Upper Pleasure Garden.

He ghosted

Ghostwriter

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...

 the autobiographies

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 of association footballers Bobby Moore

Bobby Moore

Robert Frederick Chelsea "Bobby" Moore, OBE was an English footballer. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup...

, Terry Venables

Terry Venables

Terence Frederick "Terry" Venables , often referred to as "El Tel", is a former football player and manager, as well as being a media pundit. During the 1960s and 70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers, and gained two caps for England...

 and manager Tommy Docherty

Tommy Docherty

Thomas Henderson "Tommy" Docherty , commonly known as "The Doc", is a Scottish former footballer and football manager.-Playing career:...

.

In 1971, his novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm

The Siege of Trencher's Farm

The Siege of Trencher's Farm is a novel by British author Gordon Williams and first published by Secker & Warburg. The novel was adapted into the film Straw Dogs by Sam Peckinpah in 1971, and again in 2011, under the same name...

was controversially filmed as Straw Dogs. Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah

David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah was an American filmmaker and screenwriter who achieved prominence following the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch...

's cinematic treatment marked a watershed in the depiction of sexual violence in the cinema

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 though the most controversial scenes are absent from the book. Other film work includes The Man Who Had Power Over Women

The Man Who Had Power Over Women

The Man Who Had Power Over Women is a 1970 British comedy film directed by John Krish and starring Rod Taylor, Carol White and James Booth. A successful Australian talent agent grows disenchanted with his life, which includes includes a failing marriage and having to represent a troublesome rock...

, from his own novel, and Tree of Hands, as scriptwriter from a Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....

 novel. Williams also wrote The Duellists, the book of Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott

Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...

's film.

While working as commercial manager of association football club Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

, he renewed his collaboration with Venables, resulting in four co-written novels. From the novels grew the 1978 TV series Hazell

Hazell (TV series)

Hazell is a British television series that ran from 1978–1979, about a fictional private detective named James Hazell.-Overview:James Hazell was a cockney private detective character created by journalist and novelist Gordon Williams and footballer-turned-manager Terry Venables...

which the pair co-wrote under the shared pseudonym P. B. Yuill.

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