Jeremy Lewis
Passion For Print
The Man Who Made Penguins: The Life of Sir William Emrys Williams Editor-in-Chief, Penguin Books 1936–1965
By Sander Meredeen
Darien-Jones Publishing 266pp £29.50 order from our bookshop
In the prelims of his book, under a brooding photograph of his hero, Sander Meredeen quotes Richard Holmes to the effect that ‘one of the jobs of biography is to bring back the lost or the forgotten, or people to whom justice has not been done’. Despite his flamboyant and convivial personality, Sir William Emrys Williams was the ultimate éminence grise, a sure-footed and sometimes ruthless denizen of the corridors of power, and as such he had a far greater influence on the cultural life of this country than many more famous names; but it is in the nature of éminences grises to be shadowy figures in their lifetimes and forgotten thereafter, and the affable, quick-witted Bill Williams was no exception. Although I am, as it turns out, one of his traducers, I share to the full Meredeen’s impassioned belief that Williams was ‘a man who deserves to be better remembered’.
A proud Welshman, Williams flourished at a time when the ‘Taffia’ loomed large in British cultural life – his friends and contemporaries included Emlyn Williams, Tom Jones (Lloyd George’s crony, not the saturnine singer), Ifor Evans and the
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'There are at least two dozen members of the House of Commons today whose names I cannot read without laughing because I know what poseurs and place-seekers they are.'
From the archive, Christopher Hitchens on the Oxford Union.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/mother-of-unions
Chuffed to be on the Curiosity Pill 2020 round-up for my @Lit_Review piece on swimming, which I cannot wait to get back to after 10+ months away https://literaryreview.co.uk/different-strokes https://twitter.com/RNGCrit/status/1351922254687383553
'The authors do not shrink from spelling out the scale of the killings when the Rhodesians made long-distance raids on guerrilla camps in Mozambique and Zambia.'
Xan Smiley on how Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/what-the-secret-agent-saw