Client details
Kate Williams
| Simon Trewin | Associate Agent: Ariella Feiner |
Kate Williams is the author of ENGLAND'S MISTRESS, BECOMING QUEEN and the co-author of THE RING AND THE CROWN: ROYAL WEDDINGS: A HISTORY OF ROYAL WEDDINGS, 1066-2011, with Alison Weir, Sarah Gristwood and Tracy Borman. THE PLEASURES OF MEN, Penguin, 19th January 2012: Catherine Sorgeiul lives with her Uncle in a rambling house in London's East End. She has few companions and little to occupy the days beyond her own colourful imagination. But then a murderer strikes, ripping open the chests of young girls and stuffing hair into their mouths to resemble a beak, leading the press to christen him The Man of Crows. And as Catherine hungrily devours the news, she finds she can channel the voices of the dead ... and comes to believe she will eventually channel The Man of Crows himself. But the murders continue to panic the city and Catherine gradually realizes she is snared in a deadly trap, where nothing is as it first appears ... and lurking behind the lies Catherine has been told are secrets more deadly and devastating than anything her imagination can conjure. With an elegant style and thrilling plot, THE PLEASURES OF MEN reveals the dark, beating heart of corrupt London during Queen Victoria's reign. Reviews: “This is a wonderfully ripe, imaginative and gripping piece of Victorian pastiche, with a spider’s web of a plot and a spine-tingling atmosphere of menace and suspense” The Times "The Pleasures of Men shares with Wolf Hall an ambitious, challenging concern with form combined with a pitch-perfect historical ear. Williams has a gift for grotesque sensuality, impregnating her city with a fine layer of clinging filth...Her progress through London's slums has the halluinatory quality of Dickens's night-walking passages... This intoxicating and disturbing novel is properly thrilling and extraordinarily well-written. Kate Williams is already an accomplished biographer; The Pleasures of Men shows a soaring talent let loose." The Independent "An intense, intelligent and hugely entertaining read...it will add Williams to the ranks of contemporary queens of historical fiction, which include Sarah Dunant, Sarah Waters, Tracey Chevalier, Susannah Dunn, Philippa Gregory, Michelle Lovric and Hilary Mantel." The Guardian ‘A sure-footed evocation of seamy Victorian London’ The Sunday Telegraph "There is poetry to Williams's prose...the many pleasures of THE PLEASURES OF MEN... lie in its sure-footed evocation of an era and its deft critique on repression." Seven "A spine-tingling, seductive thriller."Woman and Home "Part bodice-ripper, part slasher, the book's elaborate plot moves along at a brisk clip with a nod to the likes of Sarah Waters and Peter Ackroyd." Daily Mail "The portrayal of London’s East End, the growing hysteria that inevitably surrounds the progress of a serial killer and the stifling overprotectiveness that women suffered are beautifully illustrated throughout." bookbag.co.uk "A charged, fast-paced ride through the dark underbelly of Victorian London... fans of Sarah Waters will love it." Good Housekeeping "An eerie murder mystery." Marie Claire Good Book Club Pick “Fans of Sarah Waters and Michael Faber will revel in this charged and colourful Victorian epic." The Bookseller |
| Publication Details | Notes |
|---|---|
| YOUNG ELIZABETH: THE MAKING OF OUR QUEEN 2012 Weidenfeld and Nicholson | We can hardly imagine a Britain without Elizabeth II on the throne. It seems to be the job she was born for. And yet, for much of her early life, the young princess did not know the role that her future would hold. She was our accidental Queen. As a young girl, Elizabeth was among the guests in Westminster Abbey watching her father being crowned, making her the only monarch to have attended a parent's coronation. Kate Williams explores the sheltered upbringing of the young princess, with a gentle father and domineering mother, her complicated relationship with her sister, Princess Margaret, and her dependence on her nanny, Marion 'Crawfie' Crawford. She details the profound and devastating impact of the abdication crisis, when, at the impressionable age of eleven, Elizabeth found her position changed overnight: no longer a minor princess she was now heiress to the throne. Elizabeth's determination to share in the struggles of her people marked her out from a young age. Her father initially refused to let her volunteer as a nurse during the Blitz, but relented when she was eighteen and allowed her to work as a mechanic and truck driver for the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service. It was her forward-thinking approach that ensured that her coronation was televised, against the advice of politicians at the time. Kate Williams reveals how the 25-year-old young Queen carved out a lasting role for herself amid the changes of the twentieth century. Her monarchy would be a very different one to that of her parents and grandparents. And its continuing popularity in the twenty-first century owes much to the intelligence and elusive personality of this remarkable woman. |
| BECOMING QUEEN 2008 Arrow | Our perception of Victoria the Queen is coloured by portraits of her older, widowed self - her dour expression embodying the repressive morality propagated in her time. But BECOMING QUEEN reveals an energetic and vibrant woman, determined to battle for power. It also documents the Byzantine machinations behind Victoria's quest to occupy the throne, and shows how her struggles did not end when finally the crown was placed on her head. Laying bare the passions that swirled around the throne in the eighteenth century, BECOMING QUEEN is an absorbingly dramatic tale of secrets, sexual repression and endless conflict. BECOMING QUEEN was serialised in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella Magazine, and Kate discussed it on Woman’s Hour, the Guestlist on Classic FM and the Simon Mayo programme on Radio 5. Kate filmed a BBC 2 Timewatch special on the film YOUNG VICTORIA, based on BECOMING QUEEN, which was shown on Saturday 18 October 2008 and 19 April 2009. Acclaimed by the Guardian as 'telly history at its best', the Times as 'excellent', and by the Radio Times as 'superb', it received over 2.2 milllion viewers and has been shown around the world. |
| THE RING AND THE CROWN: A HISTORY OF ROYAL WEDDINGS, 1066-2011 2011 Hutchinson | The excitement surrounding the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton has prompted four of Britain’s top historical biographers to look closely at Royal Weddings from 1066 to the present day. Professionally, Alison Weir, Kate Williams, Sarah Gristwood and Tracy Borman do events and television together, and are known affectionately, as the ‘History Girls’. They bring an elan, and a passion for detail and dramatic narrative to all their subjects. Each writer focuses on different areas of interest. Alison Weir deals with the medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods. Kate Williams scrutinises the Georgians and Victorians. Sarah Gristwood takes up the story in 1919, when Princess Patricia of Connaught revived the tradition of royal brides marrying in Westminster Abbey, and goes on to examine the weddings of the Queen Mother (1923), the Queen (1947), and Princess Margaret in 1960. Lastly, Tracy Borman brings the book right up to date, with accounts of the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer through to the fanfare that will celebrate the nuptials of Kate and William. Every kind of wedding features – from those attended by great public celebrations, to the many that took place in private chapels, parish churches and even in secret. Fascinating anecdotal details are revealed in the course of this most informative and entertaining overview of royal weddings through history, some amusing, some poignant, some bawdy. THE RING AND THE CROWN places the royal wedding of the heir to the throne in historical perspective, and it does so with carefully selected illustrations that help make the authors’ insights come even more vividly alive. |
| ENGLAND'S MISTRESS: THE INFAMOUS LIFE OF EMMA HAMILTON 2007 Arrow Books | A dramatic, sparkling tale of sex, glamour, intrigue, romance and heartbreak, ENGLAND'S MISTRESS traces the rise and rise of unstoppable heroine Emma Hamilton. Born into poverty, she clawed her way up through London's underworlds of sex for sale to become England's first media superstar. Nothing could stand in her way of her desire to live out her dreams; except her self-destructive desires. Drawing on many previously undiscovered letters, and told with a novelist's flair, England's Mistress captures the relentless drive, innovative style and burning passion of a true heroine. |
| Georgina Lewis | +44 (0) 20 3214 0871 |
Kate Williams is represented by Georgina Lewis for dramatic rights. If you are interested in TV appearances and events regarding Kate Williams please contact her TV and Media Agent Sue Ayton at Knight Ayton Management. For more information please visit their website at www.knightayton.co.uk. |
