Author of ‘Wings Over the Island’, David Williams’ interest in all forms of transport goes back to his childhood, but became focussed to a greater extent on ships and maritime affairs after his family moved to the Isle of Wight in 1960.
He first began writing in the late 1960s in collaboration with his friend, and fellow Coach House author, Richard de Kerbrech. The bulk of a manuscript for a first book ended up being published as a series of magazine articles and more features for Ships Monthly and the Isle of Wight Weekly Post followed. Their first, joint book “Damned by Destiny” was finally published in 1982.
Since then, he has written another 24 books, four of these also co-authored with Richard. A further three are in the pipeline. The subjects are mainly shipping but such diverse topics as salvage (not just maritime), sieges, aircraft, and research techniques and sources have also received his attention. Among the books he has written independently are two with local interest:
“Whites of Cowes” – an illustrated history of the J. Samuel White shipyard
“Wings Over the Island” – a pictorial account of the various aircraft constructed on the Isle of Wight and the companies that were responsible for them (see below)
He studied as a professional photographer and whenever possible likes to illustrate his writing with his own photographs.
Until 2000 he worked full-time for GKN at East Cowes, running the Technical Publications and Product Support departments. He now devotes his time to writing, editing and photography. His other main interest is genealogy and he has taught this as a subject in Adult Recreational classes at the Isle of Wight College in Newport, focussing on a biographical approach to family history research.
To receive our free newsletter and click the logo
