Mining history, memoir, genealogy, ghost fiction, golf-club history and poetry. A collection built from experience, research and memory.
Alongside Why: A Collier’s Tale, William has written across several subjects, but the books repeatedly return to history, working lives, family memory and the value of putting a record on the page.
William’s personal account of a Lanarkshire mining tragedy, the workmates who died, the courage of rescuers and the lessons he believes should be remembered.
Written from the perspective of a coal miner’s son, Coal to Steel is William’s personal response to class division, poverty and the human cost of industrial life.
The book looks back to a period when the Industrial Revolution was at its peak and follows the forces that William believes contributed to the decline of heavy industry in Scotland. It is direct, personal and rooted in the experience of families whose lives were shaped by the pits.
A late, rain-soaked stop on the Glasgow to Edinburgh motorway left William looking towards Kirk O’Shotts beneath an eerie moon. The image stayed with him and became the starting point for a fictional ghost story grounded in local reports and historical research.
As a former coal miner and amateur genealogist, William was drawn to the area’s mining past, including the severe conditions endured by children underground. Fiction and history meet in a story shaped by place, memory and the unexplained.
After more than fifty years of family-history research, William brings together the records, discoveries and questions that have shaped his understanding of his ancestry.
Beginning long before online genealogy made research easier, the work reflects decades spent following documentary evidence and reconsidering familiar stories about Scottish and Scots-Irish identity. William presents the findings for readers to examine and judge for themselves.
After forty-five years as a member of a golf club that had become a second home to many, William set out to record its history and examine the events surrounding its administration and closure.
The book considers the loss of major assets, including an eighteen-hole course, clubhouse and land, while preserving more than a century of club history. William makes no attempt to avoid controversy, presenting the facts and suppositions he uncovered during his research.
Part family record and part historical journey, An Eagle’s Wing follows roughly five hundred years of ancestry and the discoveries William and his wife Margaret made while researching across Scotland, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
The book argues that family history should be more than lists of births, marriages and deaths. William connects individual lives with the events around them and encourages readers to preserve their own stories, documents and memories for future generations.
A tribute to coal miners and an industry in danger of being forgotten, The Ordinary Miner gathers poetry written by miners and surrounds each piece with commentary and description.
Collected over many years, the poems reflect people who worked in hard conditions but still found humour, beauty and meaning in the world around them. William’s aim is to keep the memory of the collier alive.
Cover artwork shown from the supplied book files. Amazon buttons open the links supplied for each title.
