Timothy Williams

birth_place = London, England
death_date =
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nationality = Dual French and English
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genre = Crime fiction
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debut_works = "Converging Parallels"
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website = http://www.timothywilliams.uk.com
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Timothy Williams (b. 1946) is a British author who has written five novels featuring Commissario Piero Trotti, a character critics have referred to as a personification of modern Italy. ["Literary Review," Nov 1992] Williams' books include "Black August", which won a Crime Writers' Association award [Award CWA 1992] . His novels have been translated into French, Italian, Danish, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, and Japanese.

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 Leon was born in 1942.] [Ms Nabb and Mr Dibdin both died in 2007.] Ms. Nabb's "Death of an Englishman" was published in 1981 and William's "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.

Cultural milieu

Commissario Trotti investigates crime in a small, unnamed city on the river Po in the north of Italy (sometimes erroneously identified as Padua). 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.

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 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.

Novels

*"Converging Parallels" (London: Gollancz, 1982; ISBN 978-0575031258)
*"The Puppeteer" (London: Gollancz, 1985; ISBN 978-0575047532)
*"Persona Non Grata" (London: Gollancz, 1987; ISBN 978-0575040823)
*"Black August" (London: Orion, 1992; ISBN 978-0575053076)
*"Big Italy" (London: Orion, 1996; ISBN 978-0575059290)

References, Notes

External links

* [http://www.timothywilliams.uk.com/index.html Timothy Williams]
* [http://www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/twilliams.html Tangled Web]
* [http://italian-mysteries.com/TWap.html Italian Mysteries]