Originally from Salford, Greater Manchester, William spent formative years living in the Shetland Islands where his father worked on the oil terminal. The topography inspired a passion for geology that years later, William hoped to pursue while at Cambridge University. Colour-blindness proved to be an obstacle, so he switched fields and graduated with a degree in Computer Science.

A trip to Israel in his late teens to volunteer on a kibbutz proved life-changing. There he met Holocaust survivors and heard their first-hand accounts. He settled there, married, and had two children. William was seriously injured by a car whilst standing on the pavement near his home in Israel and spent months in hospital recovering. Now at a crossroads, he interviewed with spy agency Mossad, and when asked to propose a possible undercover operation, he impressed them with his powerful storytelling and imagination. The life of a writer was more to his liking than a career in spycraft.

He returned to Europe and worked as a software engineer and consultant in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Mallorca. He and his second wife – a native of New York City – lived for several years in the old town centre of Heidelberg, Germany, with its haunting vestiges of its Nazi past. Following a visit to the “Nazi Castle” Wewelsburg, William was inspired to apply the computer science concept of graph theory to the idea of forming associated relationships and plot points. He left the technology sector to focus on realising his dream of writing a novel.

Whilst working on his novel, he worked as a maths tutor, taught computer coding to children, volunteered to help the elderly learn basic computer skills, and became a certified mindfulness meditation coach. He now lives in London with his New York-born wife. He speaks fluent Dutch and has a working knowledge of Hebrew and German.