William’s ancestry in the Southern Highlands goes back to Comfort Hill, Eling Forest and Cherry Tree Hill.

From Johnniefelds at Marulan he served as a councillor on Mulwaree Shire Council, including four years as president, before the amalgamation that made it Goulburn Mulwaree.

A former charolais cattle grazier, William remains an honorary vice president of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW.

Retired in Bowral for the last decade, William is focused on poetry, amateur theatre with the Highlands Theatre Group and Crash Test Drama at Bundanoon, tennis at Loseby Park and now his first novel – Molly, a story of love, crime, and political intrigue. 

As the author tells the story, Thomas, a Scotsman and part-time photographer, has been invited by Masika, a friend from university, to visit his west African country, Bortonia.

A country steeped in slavery and drug trafficking, Thomas hopes he will, through his camera lens, expose this blight to the world. 

Thomas is savagely attacked by the regime’s enforcers but survives and is hospitalised.

This is where he meets Molly, a patient of the doctor who attends to her mental instability.

She tells him her life’s story of abuse and manipulation by the regime, and the work of the chemist who damages her mind.

Thomas falls in love with Molly, and they escape to Scotland, where together they fight to overcome her demons.

William received the first copies of Molly a few days after Christmas last year.

For those keen to sample a new work by a local author, you can email William at wpg.davies@goulburn.net.au.