Timothy Williams
Encyclopedia
Timothy Williams is a bilingual British author who has written five novels in English featuring Commissario Piero Trotti, a character critics have referred to as a personification of modern Italy. Williams' books include Black August, which won a Crime Writers' Association
award. His novels have been translated into French
, Italian
, Danish
, Russian
, Bulgarian
, Polish
, and Japanese
.
Williams first French novel, Un autre soleil, set in the Caribbean, was published in Paris
by Rivages in March 2011
Williams was born in Walthamstow
(Essex, now London) and attended Woodford Green
Preparatory School
, Chigwell School
and St Andrews University. He has previously lived in France, Italy, and in Rumania, where he worked for the British Council
.
Williams is among the small number of authors writing Italian crime novels in English (including Magdalen Nabb
, Michael Dibdin
, and Donna Leon
), three of whom are British and were born in the span of a single year. Ms. Nabb's Death of an Englishman was published in 1981 and Williams' Converging Parallels followed in 1982. Williams is also the author of a soon to be published series of crime novels set in Guadeloupe
in the French West Indies
featuring Anne Marie Lavaud, a juge d'instruction. Mr. Williams, who holds dual British/French citizenship, currently lives on the island of Guadeloupe
and teaches in the main lycée of Pointe à Pitre.
For the Observer
Timothy Williams is one of the ten best European crime novelists. "The five books in Williams’s Commissario Trotti series, written from 1982–96, are hard to find, but if you liked Zen (Dibdin’s books or the TV series) you’ll enjoy Trotti just as much. A delight."
). Trotti's career spans much of the First Republic, from the period known as the Italian Miracle through the Anni di Piombo. This milieu keeps the Polizia di Stato
busy and in his enquiries Trotti frequently confronts problems facing Italian society: terrorism, political instability, corruption, socialism under Craxi, Operation Clean Hands (mani pulite
), and above all, the decline of civilised intercourse.
Writing in a minimalist style, in which he relies largely on dialogue to advance the plot, Williams has at times been considered a demanding author. One critic complained that the books read like translations from Italian. Some readers find that pace and tension are sacrificed for sociology and politics and that the moody, brooding Trotti, addicted to rhubarb sweets, is too slow and too wordy for their taste.
Having grown up under Fascism
and having lost a brother in the partisan war
of 1943-45, Piero Trotti is cynical yet dourly optimistic. By the fifth novel this optimism is in scant evidence. Trotti's estranged wife lives in America. A number of women find Trotti appealing but Trotti is torn in his loyalty to the marriage.
The primary characters, Trotti and the two subalterns with whom he works, employ a more restrained, direct discourse. Trotti himself is not expressive and seems impervious to personal relationships, but both lieutenants form close bonds with their demanding mentor. Magagna eventually leaves for Milan
, in part to escape Trotti’s overwhelming influence. Pisanelli, who replaces Magagna as Trotti’s foil, is unable to remove himself from Trotti’s orbit and comes to both admire and resent his superior.
In the early novels Trotti's daughter Pioppi suffers from anorexia
, a fact which continues to haunt Trotti for years, long after her recovery, and causes him to question his role as a father. In the later novels, Trotti is a grandfather to two little girls who give meaning to his life.
Crime Writers' Association
The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....
award. His novels have been translated into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
Williams first French novel, Un autre soleil, set in the Caribbean, was published in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
by Rivages in March 2011
Williams was born in Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
(Essex, now London) and attended Woodford Green
Woodford Green
Woodford Green, formerly in the county of Essex, is part of the North East London suburb of Woodford, on the edge of Epping Forest, mostly within the London Borough of Redbridge with a small part on the western side of the green within the London Borough of Waltham Forest .-History:Woodford Green...
Preparatory School
Woodford Green Preparatory School
Woodford Green Preparatory School is a preparatory school in Woodford Green, Essex. It is known locally as The Red School due to the distinctive red uniforms its pupils wear. It was founded in 1932 to provide a non-denominational Christian education for boys and girls. The first headmistress was...
, Chigwell School
Chigwell School
Chigwell School is an English co-educational independent school/public school in Chigwell, in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It was founded in 1629 by Samuel Harsnett, a former Archbishop of York . There are around 730 pupils aged between 7 and 18 years...
and St Andrews University. He has previously lived in France, Italy, and in Rumania, where he worked for the British Council
British Council
The British Council is a United Kingdom-based organisation specialising in international educational and cultural opportunities. It is registered as a charity both in England and Wales, and in Scotland...
.
Williams is among the small number of authors writing Italian crime novels in English (including Magdalen Nabb
Magdalen Nabb
Magdalen Nabb was a British author, best known for the Marshal Guarnaccia detective novels.Born near Blackburn in Lancashire as Magdalen Nuttal, she was educated at the Convent Grammar School, Bury, before going on to art college in Manchester, where she studied arts and pottery, which she taught...
, Michael Dibdin
Michael Dibdin
Michael Dibdin , was a British crime writer.-Life:Dibdin was born in Wolverhampton, the son of a physicist, and was brought up from the age of seven in Lisburn, Northern Ireland where he attended Friends' School...
, and Donna Leon
Donna Leon
Donna Leon is the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice and featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti.Leon has lived in Venice for over 25 years...
), three of whom are British and were born in the span of a single year. Ms. Nabb's Death of an Englishman was published in 1981 and Williams' Converging Parallels followed in 1982. Williams is also the author of a soon to be published series of crime novels set in Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
in the French West Indies
French West Indies
The term French West Indies or French Antilles refers to the seven territories currently under French sovereignty in the Antilles islands of the Caribbean: the two overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the two overseas collectivities of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, plus...
featuring Anne Marie Lavaud, a juge d'instruction. Mr. Williams, who holds dual British/French citizenship, currently lives on the island of Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
and teaches in the main lycée of Pointe à Pitre.
For the Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Timothy Williams is one of the ten best European crime novelists. "The five books in Williams’s Commissario Trotti series, written from 1982–96, are hard to find, but if you liked Zen (Dibdin’s books or the TV series) you’ll enjoy Trotti just as much. A delight."
Cultural milieu
Commissario Trotti investigates crime in a small, unnamed city on the river Po in the north of Italy (sometimes erroneously identified as PaduaPadua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
). Trotti's career spans much of the First Republic, from the period known as the Italian Miracle through the Anni di Piombo. This milieu keeps the Polizia di Stato
Polizia di Stato
The Polizia di Stato is one of the national police forces of Italy.It is the main police force for providing police duties and it is also responsible for patrolling motorways , railways , airports , customs as well as certain waterways, and assisting the local police...
busy and in his enquiries Trotti frequently confronts problems facing Italian society: terrorism, political instability, corruption, socialism under Craxi, Operation Clean Hands (mani pulite
Mani pulite
Mani pulite was a nationwide Italian judicial investigation into political corruption held in the 1990s. Mani pulite led to the demise of the so-called First Republic, resulting in the disappearance of many parties. Some politicians and industry leaders committed suicide after their crimes were...
), and above all, the decline of civilised intercourse.
Writing in a minimalist style, in which he relies largely on dialogue to advance the plot, Williams has at times been considered a demanding author. One critic complained that the books read like translations from Italian. Some readers find that pace and tension are sacrificed for sociology and politics and that the moody, brooding Trotti, addicted to rhubarb sweets, is too slow and too wordy for their taste.
Characterization
The novels are populated with an array of acquaintances, colleagues, criminals, and the occasional walk-on, which together present a spectrum of the Italian national character. The author often uses minor characters to demonstrate the Italian penchant for labyrinthine and sometimes obfuscatory dialogue.Having grown up under Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
and having lost a brother in the partisan war
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
of 1943-45, Piero Trotti is cynical yet dourly optimistic. By the fifth novel this optimism is in scant evidence. Trotti's estranged wife lives in America. A number of women find Trotti appealing but Trotti is torn in his loyalty to the marriage.
The primary characters, Trotti and the two subalterns with whom he works, employ a more restrained, direct discourse. Trotti himself is not expressive and seems impervious to personal relationships, but both lieutenants form close bonds with their demanding mentor. Magagna eventually leaves for Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, in part to escape Trotti’s overwhelming influence. Pisanelli, who replaces Magagna as Trotti’s foil, is unable to remove himself from Trotti’s orbit and comes to both admire and resent his superior.
In the early novels Trotti's daughter Pioppi suffers from anorexia
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. Although commonly called "anorexia", that term on its own denotes any symptomatic loss of appetite and is not strictly accurate...
, a fact which continues to haunt Trotti for years, long after her recovery, and causes him to question his role as a father. In the later novels, Trotti is a grandfather to two little girls who give meaning to his life.
Novels in English
- Converging Parallels (London: GollanczGollanczGollancz often refers to the British publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.Gollancz, a family name originating from the Polish town Gołańcz , is mainly known as the name of a prominent British Jewish family, including:* Sir Hermann Gollancz , rabbi* Sir Israel Gollancz , scholar of...
, 1982; ISBN 978-0575031258) - The Puppeteer (London: Gollancz, 1985; ISBN 978-0575047532)
- Persona Non Grata (London: Gollancz, 1987; ISBN 978-0575040823)
- Black August (London: OrionOrion Publishing GroupOrion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
, 1992; ISBN 978-0575053076) - Big Italy (London: Orion, 1996; ISBN 978-0575059290)