Tom Williams

My name is Tom and I graduated with a BA in English from University College London in 2003 and an MA in Issues in Modern Culture, also from University College London, in 2004. Since then, I’ve worked in publishing, as a literary agent, and in publishing tech and mobile games. I am the author of A Mysterious Something In The Light: The Life of Raymond Chandler (Aurum Press 2012 / Chicago Review Press 2014 /  Benvira 2014 / University of Nanking Press 2020) and I have reviewed books for The Observer, The Irish Times and The Spectator. My research interests include British modernism and its engagement with the publishing trade, the intellectual history of British modernism, life writing and its theory, as well as the development of hardboiled detective fiction and the history of Southern California.

Data analysis doesn't come naturally to me (I much prefer books) but it is an immensly valuable tool that can bolster (or undermine) the sort of critical arguments I enjoy engaging with. With that in mind, one of the challenges I have set for myself this year it to develop my coding skills so that I can analyse texts at scale and unpick literary trends by constellating data with close reading, literary history and biography.