{{Short description|British journalist and fiction writer (1883–1946)}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} thumb|Lieutenant Valentine Williams '''George Valentine Williams''' (1883 – 20 November 1946) was a journalist and writer of popular fiction.
Williams was born in 1883.{{sfnp|Kipling|1990|p=280|ps=}} He was the eldest son of the chief editor at Reuters; both his brother and an uncle were also journalists. He replaced Austin Harrison as the Reuters correspondent in Berlin in 1905, aged 21. In 1908, he left Reuters to join the ''Daily Mail'',{{sfnp|Vogeler|2008|p=35|ps=}} filing stories from Paris and covering the Portuguese revolution of 1910. He was in the Balkans at the outbreak of World War I and became one of the first accredited war correspondents in March 1915.{{sfnp|West|2009|pp=580–581|ps=}} William Beach Thomas had been reporting the war for the ''Daily Mail'' in the period before official accreditations were granted. When the British government relented its opposition to the presence of journalists in 1915, having been warned by Theodore Roosevelt that reporting limitations were affecting public opinion in the United States, Williams stepped into the role.{{sfnp|Wyatt|Manning|2011|p=457|ps=}}{{sfnp|Farish|2001|p=280|ps=}}
In December 1915, Williams enlisted for service in the Irish Guards and Beach Thomas took his place as an accredited reporter in France. Williams was awarded the Military Cross as a soldier and wrote two autobiographical books about his war-time experiences. In the aftermath of war, he travelled widely as a reporter, covering events such as the Versailles Peace Conference and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen, as well as events in America. Harold Nicolson met him in connection with events at Versailles and described in a diary entry that "He is far too intelligent to be employed by such a paper" (the ''Daily Mail'').{{sfnp|Nicolson|2013|p=15 April|ps=}} It was during this period that he began writing thrillers{{sfnp|West|2009|pp=580–581|ps=}} and around 1926 gave up his post as Foreign Editor of the ''Daily Mail'' to pursue a full-time career as an author.{{sfnp|Kipling|1990|p=280|ps=}}
Williams was too old for active service at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Secret Intelligence Service, vetting potential new recruits such as Malcolm Muggeridge and Kim Philby.{{efn|Williams had befriended Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the British spymaster, during World War I and claimed to be the last person to have seen him alive.{{sfnp|Jeffery|2010|p=170|ps=}}}} He was transferred to the British Embassy in Washington in 1941 but soon after left for Hollywood, where he worked as a scriptwriter for Twentieth-Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.{{sfnp|West|2009|pp=580–581|ps=}}
Williams was married to Alice Crawford. He died on 20 November 1946 at Gotham Hospital in Manhattan, where he had travelled from England for special medical treatment.{{sfnp|Kipling|1990|p=280|ps=}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/11/21/95799489.pdf |title=V. Williams Dead; Wrote Spy Stories: English Journalist Was Noted for Mystery Novels, Including 'Man With the Clubfoot' |date=21 November 1946 |page=26 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=22 March 2024}}</ref>
== Selected works == <!-- Among the books written by Williams are: (then simply label it Selected -P64 --> *{{cite book |title=With Our Army in Flanders |url=https://archive.org/details/withourarmyinfla00willuoft |year=1915 |publisher=Arnold}}, as by G. Valentine Williams, {{LCCN|15027694}} *{{cite book |title=Adventures of an Ensign |year=1917}} *{{cite book |title=The Man with the Clubfoot |year=1918 |title-link=The Man with the Clubfoot }}, as by Douglas Valentine *{{cite book |title=The Secret Hand |year=1918}}; also known as ''Okewood of the Secret Service'' (US edition, 1919; Project Gutenberg, 2000)<ref>[http://www.worldcat.org/title/okewood-of-the-secret-service/oclc/667612021/editions?start_edition=1&sd=asc&referer=di&se=yr&qt=sort_yr_asc&editionsView=true&fq= "Formats and Editions of Okewood of the secret service"]. WorldCat. Retrieved 2014-11-17.</ref> *{{cite book |title=The Return of Clubfoot |year=1922 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410L4}} *{{cite book |title=Yellow Streak |year=1922}} *{{cite book |title=The Orange Divan |year=1923}} *{{cite book |title=Clubfoot the Avenger |year=1924}} *{{cite book |title=The Three of Clubs |year=1924}} *{{cite book |title=The Red Mass |year=1925 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20121035}} *{{cite book |title=Mr Ramosi |year=1926}} *{{cite book |title=The Pigeon House |year=1926 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410L3}} (also known as ''The Key Man'') *{{cite book |title=The Eye in Attendance |year=1927}} * ''The Crouching Beast'' ({{cite book |title=The Crouching Beast |year=1928 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410L0}}) *{{cite book |title=Mannequin |year=1930}} (also known as ''The Mysterious Miss Morrisot'') *{{cite book |title=The Knife Behind the Curtain |year=1930}} *{{cite book |title=Death Answers the Bell |year=1931}} *{{cite book |title=The Gold Comfit Box |year=1932 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410L2}} (also known as ''The Mystery of the Gold Box'') *{{cite book |title=The Clock Ticks On |year=1933}}. First published as a newspaper serial, (London) Daily News, 1932 *{{cite book |title=Fog |year=1933}} (with Dorothy Rice Sims) *{{cite book |title=The Portcullis Room |year=1934}} *{{cite book |title=Masks Off at Midnight |year=1934 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20180207}} *{{cite book |title=The Clue of the Rising Moon |year=1935}} *{{cite book |title=Dead Man Manor |year=1936}} *{{cite book |title=The Spider's Touch |year=1936}} *{{cite book |title=Mr Treadgold Cuts In |year=1937}} (also known as ''The Curiosity of Mr Treadgold'') *{{cite book |title=World of Action |year=1938 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin}} (autobiography) *{{cite book |title=The Fox Prowls |year=1939 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410L1}} *{{cite book |title=Double Death |year=1939}} *''Courier to Marrakesh'' ({{cite book |title=Courier to Marrakech |year=1944 |url=https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=201410K9}}) *{{cite book |title=Skeleton out of the Cupboard |year=1946}}
== References == '''Notes''' {{notelist}} '''Citations''' {{Reflist}} '''Bibliography''' {{refbegin}} *{{citation |title=Modern Witnesses: Foreign Correspondents, Geopolitical Vision, and the First World War |first=Matthew |last=Farish |journal=Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers |series=New |volume=26 |issue=3 |year=2001 |pages=273–287 |publisher=The Royal Geographical Society |jstor=3650646 |doi=10.1111/1475-5661.00022}} {{subscription required}} *{{citation |title=MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949 |first=Keith |last=Jeffery |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2010 |isbn=9780747591832 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k3mNDh-IWBsC}} *{{citation |title=The Letters of Rudyard Kipling: 1920–30 |volume=5 |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Pinney |first=Rudyard |last=Kipling |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=1990 |isbn=9780877458982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nwTzaglOEHgC}} *{{citation |title=Peacemaking, 1919 |first=Harold |last=Nicolson |authorlink=Harold Nicolson |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2013 |orig-date=1943 |isbn=9780571309245 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IZRKAQAAQBAJ}} *{{citation |title=Austin Harrison and the English Review |first=Martha S. |last=Vogeler |publisher=University of Missouri Press |year=2008 |isbn=9780826266682 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H0nLSepb2GAC}} *{{citation |title=The A to Z of British Intelligence |first=Nigel |last=West |authorlink=Nigel West |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2009 |isbn=9780810870284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zYAXAAAAQBAJ}} *{{citation |title=Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America |editor1-first=Clarence R. |editor1-last=Wyatt |editor2-first=Martin J. |editor2-last=Manning |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=9781598842272 |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c4D1VD4x9M4C}} {{refend}}
==External links== * {{LCAuth|no95040150 |Valentine Williams|35|ue}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=904}} * {{FadedPage|id=Williams, Valentine|name=Valentine Williams|author=yes}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Valentine Williams}} * {{Librivox author |id=16231}} *[https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/1674/ Play ''The Man with the Club Foot'' by Valentine Williams on Great War Theatre]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Valentine}} Category:1883 births Category:1946 deaths Category:English war correspondents Category:Daily Mail journalists Category:English male screenwriters Category:English thriller writers Category:MI6 personnel Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:Irish Guards soldiers Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:Reuters Category:20th-century English novelists Category:English male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century English screenwriters Category:20th-century English male writers