Williams, F Chenhalls
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1880-1965) UK minister, inventor (he patented an improved sash window catch) and author of several novels, two of which are sf. The Inner Number (1927) features a thought-reading Machine (see Psionics) which generates a romantic melodrama; in The Potter's Wheel (1931) as F C Williams, a Mad Scientist dies horribly after attempting to kill his daughter with his Death Ray; the formula for this Invention then serves as a McGuffin for a complex international spy story centred in South Africa, where a plutonium mine is also at risk. Unusually for tales of this sort set after World War One, the conflict is seen as a squandering of lives, and as a warning that civilized Europe had gone fatally adrift. [JC]
Frank Chenhalls Williams
born Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales: 1880
died Penzance, Cornwall: 14 March 1965
works
- The Inner Number (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1927) [hb/Ellis Silas]
- The Potter's Wheel (London: Henry Hartley (Publishers), Limited, 1931) [hb/uncredited]
links
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