Tony Williams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Williams, Tony (1960 - ) is an author, comedian, poet, director and filmmaker.

He has written on subjects as diverse as children's fiction, murder, sport and war. Most recently his non-fiction books have concentrated on the topic of 'success' and his No Baloney Guides arm people with knowledge.

Tony's first book was the children's fiction title, Fizz the Wildest Boy in the Universe (1996), about an alien that has to go to school on earth after he is thrown out of every other school in the galaxy. Fizz is full of 'bellychuckles and kneewobblies.' At the schools that Tony Williams visits, many of the young children admit to having an alien in their garden shed.

Williams followed this with a selection of rugby books that are very popular with boy readers, especially reluctant readers. These books include the 'Awesome' series of rugby player biographies, featuring All Black legends Sean Fitzpatrick, Zinzan Brooke, Michael Jones, Ian Jones, Frank Bunce, and Carlos Spencer. His 'Super 12' rugby books, published in 1998, profiled the Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders, and Hurricanes.

His other titles include: Justice Without Fear or Favour (1997), for which he was ghost writer for Kevin Ryan QC; Frank Confessions (1998), ghost written for Frank Bunce; The Bad, The Very Bad and the Ugly: Whos Who of New Zealand Crime (1998); Unsolved Murders of New Zealand (1999); Tales from the Shearing Sheds (1999); The Rise, Fall and Flight of Brierley Investments (1999); text for the Penguin NZ Atlas;100 Great Moments of NZ Cricket (1999); 100 Great Moments of New Zealand Rugby (1999); Anzacs: Stories from New Zealanders at War (2000); Case of Murder (2000); contributor to Bateman New Zealand Encyclopaedia (2001); The Murder Files (2001), Kirsty (2001) co-authored with Jill Bentley, and Hard Case Kiwis (2001).

'Williams... is such a good writer. I found myself taking car registration numbers and descriptions, checking out strangers doing unusual things in odd places. I just couldn't help it, [because of] his ability to set the scene and draw in his readers'. Daily Post review of Unsolved Murders of New Zealand.

Tony Williams wrote a series of children’s fiction titles for Sunshine Books, Magda the Mammoth Hunter, Erik the Viking Raider and Odysseus the Warrior (2001).

Written with the intimacy of a novel, Cassino (2002), is Tony Williams' s non-fiction account of New Zealand soldiers in the 1944 battle for Italy.

101 Ingenious Kiwis: How New Zealanders Changed the World was published by Reed in 2006 and reprinted twice. The follow-up 101 Incredible Kiwis: How New Zealanders Lead the World was published by Reed in 2007.

In 2007 he wrote and performed War God: The retirement party of the God of War, ‘…Sometimes delivered in deeply human and hushed tones, and at others in the full savagery of barbarian bloodlust.’ Opunake and Coastal News

In his book, Questions You're Not Supposed to Ask (New Holland, 2009), Tony offered enlightenment on life's taboo subjects, with a healthy dose of laughter.

From 2010 Tony Williams mainly concentrated on his family comedy film The Big Fat One set in the independent republic of Whangamomona, which elected a goat as president. His play Clone Love (then called The Power of Love) premiered at the Courtyard Theatre, London (2010). He completed the third edition of his book Rugby Skills Tactics and Rules (2012) that was described in Amazon reviews as the best beginner’s rugby book.

He also wrote a young adult novel Shade, about a half android bounty hunter. It was originally released as a series on Amazon (2013) and later released as a full volume (2014). Tony collected together many of his poems about love and identity in Cold Feet (2014).

His No Baloney Guides were released in 2014, arming people with knowledge on key subjects such as money, storytelling, language, and maths and more, for which Tony also gives speeches, seminars and workshops.

Tony Williams intends to follow the advice of one young fan who wrote, ‘Mr. Williams, should NOT, I repeat NOT, ever stop writing such exquisite stories.’

WRITERS IN SCHOOLS INFORMATION

Tony Williams participates in the Book Council's Writers in Schools programme. He is able to speak to children of all ages, and he can talk about being an educational writer, a writer, storyteller, poet, teen fiction writer, novelist/adult fiction writer, non-fiction writer and screenwriter/playwright. He can conduct a wide range of sessions, including specialty workshops based on literacy, how to write, how to learn, how to be a genius, the history of maths, drama, and how to create great rhetoric. He can talk to groups of any size and he is able to participate in tours outside of his region. As the North Waikato News put it, he ‘…had students and staff in stitches with his livewire antics, funny voices and jokes.’ He can also lead Professional Development sessions for teachers.

MEDIA LINKS AND CLIPS

• Watch the trailer for Tony Williams's feature film The Big Fat One