Books by David Williams

This book examines the many ways in which African Americans made the Civil War about ending slavery. Abraham Lincoln's primary goal was to save the Union rather than to absolve the institution of slavery, yet slaves who escaped to Union lines refused to fight for the Union while remaining enslaved, ultimately forcing Lincoln to disband the institution.

Presents the translation of "The Standpoint of World History and Japan". This title provides guidance on how to extract the true meaning from this work, and contends that the Kyoto School philosophers were conspiring with the Imperial Japanese Navy to bring the Tojo cabinet down.

This text explores the challenge that Japan's public policy presents to Western traditions of theory and practice in political economy: an important discussion that confronts Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis.

It's action all the way in this classic and witty whodunit centred round the fate of the 19th century Round House, an ugly building of uncertain origin that could scupper the multi-million pound development planned for a south coast resort. A dozen interested parties are in favour of knocking it down. They include an Arab oil sheikh, a sexy English Literature drop-out from Sussex University, the head of a construction company, and a romantic novelist. And where does Canon Tring's languorous young wife fit in to all this? Only Louella, Lady Brasset, is committed to keeping the Round House standing; she believes it to be the joint creation of two famous architects, Sir John Soane and William Butterfield. But four hours after banker and sleuth, Mark Treasure, promises her a stay of execution on the house, it's Louella who is blown up - and another accident follows. A double accident? Or a double murder?The sixth installment in the Mark Treasure mystery series, Treasure Preserved is full of David Williams' trademark humour and charm.

A Mark Treasure mystery

Roderick Copper, retired Major, and Benny Gold, elderly London cabbie, apply on the same morning for residential places with the Rudyard Trust for Retired Officers and Gentlemen. But its eccentric and drunken Director tells them the Trust is technically bankrupt, its multi-million pound assets about to be divided between the founder's descendants - a curious, motley crew. Banker Mark Treasure is called in when Copper and Gold's bizarre scheme to preserve the charity goes wrong with terrifying consequences - kidnap, stabbing and sudden death - involving one of the bank's clients, ex-President Cruba of Ngonga, exiled in London with his sensuous third wife, his 15-year-old son, and Gerard Opac, his handsome, ambitious aide.A wonderfully sophisticated piece of detective fiction, Copper, Gold and Treasure - the fifth Mark Treasure mystery - is sure to delight with its comedic wit.

Could the take-over of Rigley's Patent Footbalm by the giant American Hutstacker Chemical Corporation really be scuppered by Mrs Ogmore-Davies's parrot finding a body in Panty Harbour? It looked like it, but banker sleuth Mark Treasure took a different view when a second body was discovered the morning after he arrived in the little West Wales sailing village close to St David's. By then Treasure had already survived a murderous assault aboard the Fishguard Express, a pitched battle on Whitland Station, and the inexplicable disappearance of a battered Australian clergyman. And that was only the start of his exceedingly unquiet weekend.The fourth in David Williams' superb series of Mark Treasure mysteries, and a finalist for the 1980 Gold Dagger Award, Murder for Treasure is a superbly witty whodunnit.

Mark Treasure has no idea that accompanying his actress wife on location to a picturesque West Country town could possibly lead to murder . . .The merchant banker is asked by Chiversley's Area Bishop to become involved in the financial affairs of the local covent - one with only three nuns left in residence and assets worth eleven million pounds. But this simple challenge develops into a double murder mystery when it becomes clear that one of the people already responsible for managing the convent finances has died in suspicious circumstances, and when a second is found half-naked and strangled soon after leaving an important dinner party. And what of a callous arson attack on the convent itself? Convinced that the police are about to arrest the wrong suspect, Treasure must use all his experience and ingenuity to uncover important evidence and unravel a complex web of deception. But time is against him and a killer is on the loose . . .Packed full of humour and red herrings, Treasure by Post is classic mystery writing at its finest.

Sir Ray Bims is about to be charged as the principal in a Caribbean bank that's laundering international drug money. Lord Grenwood, octogenarian chairman of Grenwood, Phipps, the London merchant bankers, is appalled. Three years ago he sold Bims the family football club - the Eel Bridge Rovers - and now his lordship wants to buy it back to avoid being tainted by Bims' disgrace. Only hours after refusing Grenwood's offer for the Eels, Bims commits suicide - except that Detective-Inspector Jeckels of the Fulham CID suspects that it was murder. And he discovers a string of people with motive and opportunity to dispose of Bims - among them the husband of Bims mistress; the Eels' manager whom Bims had been about to fire; a well-known concert pianist; a curiously religious pest controller; not to mention several Eels players, and Bims wife and ex-wife.Banking on Murder was David Williams' seventeenth, and final, Mark Treasure mystery, and is just as full of charm, wit and thoroughly British laughs as its predecessors.

Hardly anyone attends St Martin's Church, Kengrave Square, in West London, and it's very nearly falling down. But when news gets out that it's to be closed, and possibly sold, there's a significant flurry of interest. The site is worth millions. Aziz Developments are after it, and so is the Community of Investors for Jesus - a curious American group of televangelists. Enter Kengrave Square resident, the Honourable Mrs Monica Lodey, whose grandfather built the church. The venerable Mrs Lodey is determined to save St Martin's. She's not only rich but she can also exert huge influence: her brother is Chairman of Grenwood, Phipps, the merchant bankers, where Mark Treasure is Chief Executive.When the vicar's wife launches a fund to repair St Martin's, there's a rowdy parish meeting where Treasure's actress wife Molly is the first to promise money. Treasure hopes that can be the extent of his involvement. But when a sudden death follows, spawning more dramatic events, both he and Molly find themselves gradually drawn into yet another investigation, and this time very close to home.As cleverly plotted and wryly funny as ever, Holy Treasure! is another thrilling escapade from fiction's best banker-detective.

A Mark Treasure mystery

Llanegwen - on the coast of North Wales - used to be an attractive, healthy place for respectable people. But now it's changed beyond recognition - there's a masked rapist stalking the streets, a petty thief who's willing to take enormous risks, not to mention the anonymous businessmen who have taken over the local sweet factory after a highly convenient death...Drawn into the factory workers' fight to save their jobs and pension funds, Treasure needs all his skills as a banker to uncover the layers of greed and deceit at the factory. And he must turn sleuth again when a saucy scamper around the shop-floor ends in a bizarre double murder. Can he get to the heart of the mystery before everything goes sour and another life is lost?The eleventh installment in Williams' brilliantly witty Mark Treasure series, Divided Treasure is a perfectly plotted thriller like no other.

Marton Manor, in rural Herefordshire, makes a romantic setting even for a hastily organised wedding. And it is a quickly-arranged ceremony indeed that Fleur Jarvas is demanding - even though marrying before her twenty-first birthday means forfeiting a large inheritance. Naturally all the guests, including banker-turned-sleuth Mark Treasure and his wife Molly, are dying to know why. But that's only the first mystery lurking beneath the surface of this increasingly sinister country weekend. The real question is why the long-straying father of the bride shows up uninvited... As the wedding-eve rituals gather pace, so does the tension. And when the next day dawns, it is not to bells and confetti but to two unexplained deaths, a pointed disappearance - and a testing case for Treasure.

The Closter Drug company is going to double in value as soon as it perfects its cure for migraine: most of the directors are set to make sizeable fortunes as they float the company on the Stock Exchange. When a group pledged to stopping experiments on animals demonstrates at a Closter news conference, the action is seen as no more than embarrassing. But the kidnap of one of the Closter directors that follows cannot be so easily ignored, especially when, instead of a ransom, the kidnappers demand that the other directors sell their company shares at a crippling loss...No one understands what the kidnappers themselves are gaining by this, until banker Mark Treasure - the non-executive Chairman of Closter Drug - returns from an American trip and works out what's really happening. Even so, he is too late to prevent two murders and the stock market skulduggery that decimates Closter management and threatens to wipe out the company.The fourteenth of David Williams' elegant and intelligent Mark Treasure murder mysteries, Prescription for Murder is a perfect corporate puzzle with a cast of truly unique characters.

The Rebecca Riots in west Wales began in the summer of 1839. They ceased as suddenly as they had started, and for three and a half years the countryside was undisturbed. Then, in the winter of 1842, they broke out again with greater violence.

This groundbreaking single-authored textbook equips students with everything they need to know to truly understand the hugely topical field of biomaterials science, including essential background on the clinical necessity of biomaterials, relevant concepts in biology and materials science, comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of all existing clinical and experimental biomaterials, and the fundamental principles of biocompatibility. It features extensive case studies interweaved with theory, from a wide range of clinical disciplines, equipping students with a practical understanding of the phenomena and mechanisms of biomaterials performance; a whole chapter dedicated to the biomaterials industry itself, including guidance on regulations, standards and guidelines, litigation, and ethical issues to prepare students for industry; informative glossaries of key terms, engaging end-of-chapter exercises and up-to-date lists of recommended reading. Drawing on the author's forty years' experience in biomaterials, this is an indispensable resource for students studying these lifesaving technological advances.

David Williams grew up in Epsom, Surrey and was a childhood friend of future Led Zeppelin guitar legend, Jimmy Page. Together they discovered what was for them an intriguing and very different kind of music: the blues. As their interest grew into a passion, they befriended other teenage enthusiasts -- among them Brian Jones, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards -- becoming part of a movement that ultimately brought about the ''60s rock revolution. Part-biography, part-history, "The First Time We Met The Blues" is packed full of great anecdotes and unique insights into the early British blues scene, Page''s formative years as a musician, the beginnings of the Rolling Stones, and much more besides. It culminates with a detailed account of a momentous expedition by van from London to Manchester to see the American Folk-Blues Festival in October 1962 -- the first time ever that Williams and his friends had an opportunity to see legendary American bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Willie Dixon and John Lee Hooker in action -- and an assessment of its far-reaching aftermath.

The historical experience of Japan in the period since it embarked on 'modernization' illuminates the limitations of Western social theory.

Birmingham has been a key innovator in the gun trade since the seventeenth century and the Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof house operates to this day.

This text presents the principles and techniques of mechanics by means of illustrative examples and exercises to consolidate understanding. It offers coverage of the elements of the subject suitable for a course at the school/university interface.