Roy Williams is one Australia's emerging public intellectuals. Since mid-2006,
his book reviews have appeared regularly in
The Weekend Australian, and he
has also been a contributor to
The Sydney Morning
Herald,
Australian Literary Review,
Dissent and
Inside Sport.
God, Actually is his first book.
Williams was born and raised on the North Shore of Sydney. He attended Sydney
University in the 1980s and won the University Medal in law, before embarking
upon a twenty-year career in the legal profession. He was a litigator at one of
Australia's leading firms, Allens Arthur Robinson (formerly Allen, Allen &
Hemsley), handling many important cases in courts across the country. One of his
specialties was defamation.
But in 2004 Williams was stricken by a life-changing illness. Forced to leave
the law, he took time to recuperate before deciding to become a writer. Writing
is in his blood: his father was a Walkley award-winning journalist who wrote
speeches for prime minister Gough Whitlam and several NSW premiers, and his
brother was for many years a feature writer for
Time Australia.
In
God, Actually Williams harnesses his legal and literary skills to analyse the
arguments for and against the existence of God.
For a Christian apologist, Williams's background is unusual. His paternal
great-grandfather was a Presbyterian minister in the outback of New South Wales.
His maternal great-great grandfather was a minister of the Episcopal Church of
Scotland and chaplain to the Royal Navy during World War One. However, Williams
did not grow up as a practising Christian. For most of his life he was deeply
sceptical of all religious belief systems.
After slowly coming to faith in his thirties, he began writing
God, Actually
to
hone his own thinking.
Now 47, he lives in Sydney. His recreational
interests include golf, movies, cricket-watching, chess, gardening and caring
for his pets.
Williams is also a dynamic
Christian speaker. For more details, go to the page headed "
Roy's public-speaking services".