Pomeroy

by Gordon M. Williams

Meet John Stockley Pomeroy, black sheep scion of an aristocratic Tennessee family. Cardsharp, adventurer, seducer - the thoroughly winning rake-hell hero of this high-spirited tale of intrigue and skulduggery set against the gilded splendour of Edwardian London. Set in 1903, years before the CIA was even thought of, Pomeroy is recruited as a spy by Teddy Roosevelt and his new Secret Service. Shipped incognito across the Atlantic in the luxury Cunard liner RMS Lucania, he takes up his new undercover role posing as an American diplomat in London in its Imperial heyday. La Belle Époque won't know what's hit it. Gordon Williams is the author of Straw Dogs and the Booker Prize shortlisted From Scenes Like These. Pomeroy was first published in 1983. What the reviewers 'Pomeroy is enjoyable... Mr Williams has gleefully researched the period and the book is a catalogue of the Good Old Days.' New York Times 'This lively and entertaining novel' Washington Post 'Lively, deftly done and thoroughly enjoyable' London Review of Books 'The American Flashman, a dare-devil black sheep in the clothing of a gentleman wolf... brisk, amusing and exciting' The Times

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Aka P.B. Yuill, joint pseudonym with Terry Venables.

Gordon Maclean Williams was a Scottish author. Born in Paisley, he moved to London to work as a journalist. He has written for television and is the author of over twenty 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 novels include The Camp (1966), The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1967) and The Upper Pleasure Garden (1970).

He ghosted the autobiographies of association footballers Bobby Moore, Terry Venables and manager Tommy Docherty.

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 though the 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.

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."