Gary D. Williamson
A Short Biography
Born London’s East End in January 1954, I have worked in London as a Laboratory Scientist in the field of Bacteriology for more than forty years, first with the Ministry of Defence in the Scientific Civil Service and subsequently for the National Health Service. More than twenty years were spent in the Microbiology Laboratory of the world famous St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. I have lived in London and the surrounding suburbs for over forty years.
Karen and I married in 1985 and have two children.
Since I was about ten I have had a desire to write. Karen told me I’d write when I retired and I plan to do so. My first idea for a novel came in the early nineties, and I formulated it in my mind, whilst training for marathons. I wrote over half of it. It now needs a major overall, but the plot and characters are all there. That project was shelved, but will be resurrected and it is my intention to publish it as a third or fourth novel.
With nineteen full marathons completed including the London Marathon eight times, once in fancy dress, and raising around eight thousand pounds for various charities over eight years. I attained a World Ranking (around 230th) in the 1995 World Trail Running Championships by completing the 80-mile run across England’s South Downs. I completed the “Tough Guy” challenge three times. My time in recreational running ended in 2002, due to a long-standing knee injury.
Currently when not writing I go fishing and also study Iaido, the ancient Japanese martial art of drawing the sword. I attained my second Dan in 2012 and am working towards achieving my third Dan, whilst attempting to learn sufficient Japanese to help with these studies.
My other interests include photography, music and cinema.
I travelled around Western Europe during the early 1980s by motorcycle and wrote articles for “Motorcycle Weekly”.
I have visited the Kruger National Park in South Africa, Israel, Turkey, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mauritius, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, Morocco, Thailand, Belize, Guatemala, Rajasthan in India Myanmar (Burma), and most recently Hong Kong and Taiwan.
As a child I lived for three years in Menlo Park, California as my father worked for Ampex in Redwood City. We came back to England in 1960. Returning to the States in 1990 and visiting Virginia, ignited an interest in the American Civil War to the point where I wanted to study an aspect of it. My thesis proposal on the social impact if the Confederates had won at Gettysburg and there had been a negotiated end to the war, was unfortunately rejected. I also went to Florida in 1997 on a family vacation.
