Author's Page


Christopher J. Williams was born in England and grew up in a coal mining village in Yorkshire. He was born into a family of educators with deep roots to the ancient county of Westmorland, now Cumbria. Most of his school holidays were spent there, hiking the fells and exploring the natural world. He studied Librarianship at Northumbria University, worked briefly with The Economist in London, before leaving England in the early 1990s.

From these early years Christopher displayed a natural curiosity, questioning everything and never satisfied with an off the shelf or banal explanation. Such traits also led him to try out anything that came along. He learned to sail, played in a brass band that performed at the Royal Albert Hall and became fascinated with ornithology. He developed a consuming desire to explore beyond the shores of England which led him to India in 1991. 

It was here that he forged a deep connection with, and excitement for, historical investigation. It was one that complemented his love for the natural environment. History with a strong sense of place. Christopher’s writing often ponders the geographical, ecological or even meteorological context of an event: of why it occurred there and not somewhere else. He spent a year in India and has returned many times since, traveling the length and breadth of the sub-continent, taking advantage of the long train journeys to read and research its extraordinary history.

In 1993 Christopher arrived in Hong Kong after traveling through Southeast Asia. He was to live there for the next 15 years. For most of this period Christopher worked in television with The Walt Disney Company. It gave him the opportunity to travel widely in the Far East, especially in Japan, Korea and China. His business meetings were always interspersed with visits to the local museums, libraries and art galleries as well as historical sites. In his spare time he sailed whenever he could, exploring the coastlines and islands in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia. He continued his passion for hiking with treks to the Himalaya, New Zealand and Japan. He also became a certified scuba diver, and began a life-long love affair with golfing.

Next, Christopher relocated to Singapore where, after a few years, he switched to work in the travel sector. For 10 years he was Managing Director with Expedia. Working in the online world allowed him to deepen his understanding of, and affinity with, the culture of the diverse peoples of Southeast Asia that he encountered. He learned the traditional art of Muay Thai boxing as well as how to surf in Bali and ski in Japan. He has traveled extensively in both mainland and maritime Southeast Asia, carrying on with his obsession for life-long learning and deepening his understanding of the history of the region.

Christopher's writing follows certain themes that are close to his heart and reflect his experiences being  immersed in the cultural context of Asia. It is about, fundamentally, Asian history, but his time working in media has shown that it must also be a great story told compellingly to make it truly resonate. He also has a penchant for hidden history, not necessarily a re-writing, but identifying the gaps in the record and joining the dots to fill those gaps. In other words augmenting an existing narrative or restating it in a way that had hitherto been untold.

In 2021 Christopher decided to become a full-time writer to pursue his passion for research and writing of narrative history, completing his first book Palace of Ghosts in 2023. Christopher continues to live in Singapore with his two dogs and two cats.


Popular posts from this blog

Step Inside the Story of Palace of Ghosts

Image
Welcome to the official Blog for my book Palace of Ghosts . This series of posts are going to be timed for the prelaunch and post launch of Palace of Ghosts : Singapore's Untold History. They are intended to provide readers with information about the author, about the creation of the book and a look behind the scenes that will provide additional and rich content related to the book's characters, events, locations. I intend to add news stories and other items that may arise and that turn out to be linked to the story. In the heart of Singapore there is a patch of heavily forested land: it is private property and strictly off limits. Anyone caught trespassing risks arrest and a heavy fine. It is a strange and inaccessible place that harbours secrets and mystery. One of the biggest mysteries is why it is even there? Singapore has the third highest population density of any country in the world. It is severely land constrained and the government is pretty good at managing what land
Read more

Tried and Tested! Life as a Digital Nomad

Image
Transitioning from a corporate career to that of a full-time writer involved many changes and adjustments in my life, both professional and personal, but one of the most intriguing things I found myself contemplating was the idea of a digital nomad approach to working. As an office-bound worker for all my career to date (business trips aside), the whole idea seemed like a some sort of mystical fantasy that would be always out of reach, and perhaps was not all it was cracked up to be anyway, “yes, just keep thinking that”, I thought. As I went through weeks, even months, of adjustment it became apparent that it was no longer out of reach but also beckoned with a strange sense of allure.   In a gallant effort to manage the tug-o-war between discipline and temptation, I pushed away the siren calls and convinced myself that the relevant question which needed answering was whether this was a really a productive way to work and achieve one’s goals, or was it something that people did who did
Read more

Tyersall Park in Popular Culture

Image
On the 22nd of August 2018 a global audience was treated to a spectacularly glamorous event staged at Tyersall Park, but this time the entire production was a work of fiction. The date was the global release of the movie Crazy Rich Asians , based on Kevin Kwan’s novel of the same name. The event took place 133 years after the official opening of the real Tyersall Palace (Istana Tyersall) in Singapore. For a year or more the Crazy Rich Asians movie took the world by storm, including Singapore, where the story is set. A few months ago, I met an ex-colleague for lunch. She was, and is, one of the smartest people I know and, since we worked together has gone on to achieve further highs in her successful career. The conversation ebbed and flowed, eventually touching upon my progress in completing Palace of Ghosts and the daunting path to publishing that lay ahead. She, like myself, had lived in close proximity to the plot of land where the now ruined Istana Woodneuk still stands in the gro
Read more