Susan Williams (historian)

Williams is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.{{Cite web |title=Susan Williams |url=https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/susan-williams |access-date=2018-01-28 |publisher=Curtis Brown}}

Her publications include The People's King: The True Story of the Abdication, a book about the abdication of Edward VIII, published in 2003;{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3601139/Did-the-people-want-Wallis.html |title=Did the people want Wallis? |author=Roberts, Andrew |author-link=Andrew Roberts (historian) |date=2003-08-24|work=The Sunday Telegraph |access-date=2018-01-28}} and Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation, published in 2006,{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/aug/19/biography.shopping |work= The Guardian|title= The bride wore black |author=Benn, Melissa |author-link=Melissa Benn |date=2006-08-19 |access-date=2018-01-28}} on which the 2016 film A United Kingdom is based. The film was directed by Amma Asante, and stars David Oyelowo as Seretse Khama and Rosamund Pike as Ruth Khama.{{Cite web |url=https://research.sas.ac.uk/search/fellow/185/dr-susan-williams/ |title=Dr Susan Williams |publisher=School of Advanced Study, University of London |access-date=2018-01-28}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/susan-williams/26660/ |title=Susan Williams |publisher=Penguin Books |access-date=2018-01-28}}

Her book Who Killed Hammarskjold? (2011),{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/12/former-raf-pilot-shot-down-un-chief-dag-hammarskjold-1961-plane |title=Man accused of shooting down UN chief: 'Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to…' |author1=Graham-Harrison, Emma |author2=Rocksen, Andreas |author3=Brügger, Mads |date=2019-01-12 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2019-01-13}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/19-may/books-arts/book-reviews/who-killed-hammarskjoeld-by-susan-williams |title=Who Killed Hammarskjöld? by Susan Williams |last=Bordeaux |first=Michael |date=2017-05-19 |work=Church Times |access-date=2018-01-28}} about the 1961 death of the then-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, triggered a new UN investigation in 2015.{{fact|date=February 2022}}

In Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II she tells an intricate tale regarding the formation of special unit of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a forerunner of the CIA, to purchase and secretly extract all the uranium from Shinkolobwe in Katanga Province, Belgian Congo. The purpose of this was to obtain the radioactive material and keep it out of the hands of the Axis powers. The uranium was used in the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.{{fact|date=February 2022}}

Her latest book is White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa, published in 2021.{{cite web |title=White Malice |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susan-williams/white-malice/ |access-date=2021-08-11 |website=Kirkus}}{{cite web |last=Norton-Taylor |first=Richard |date=26 October 2021 |title=Did Britain help murder an African leader and U.N. secretary general? |url=https://declassifieduk.org/did-britain-help-murder-an-african-leader-and-u-n-secretary-general/ |access-date=17 January 2023 |website=Declassified UK |language=en-US}}

She was the recipient of a 2023 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction.{{cite web|url=https://windhamcampbell.org/|title=2023 Prize Recipients|website=Windham Campbell Prizes 2023|publisher=Windham Campbell Prizes|access-date=21 April 2023}}

The Windham Campbell judges noted that: 'Susan Williams chronicles imperial legacies with a forensic eye, a historical mind, and a decolonial sensibility for African agency; her findings are as stunning as they are transformative.' {{cite web|url=https://windhamcampbell.org/festival/2023/recipients/williams-susan|title=Susan Williams 2023 Prize Recipient|website=Windham Campbell Prizes 2023|publisher=Windham Campbell Prizes|access-date=21 April 2023}}

• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=Ladies of Influence: Women of the Elite in Interwar Britain |year=2000 |place=London |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=9780713992618}}
• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=The People's King: The True Story of the Abdication |year=2003 |place=London |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=9780713995732}}{{ref|Alpha|α}}
• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation |year=2006 |place=London |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=9780713998115}}{{ref|Beta|β}}
• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=Who Killed Hammarskjöld? The UN, the Cold War, and White Supremacy in Africa |year=2011 |place=London |publisher=Hurst |isbn=9781849041584}}
• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=Spies in the Congo: America's Atomic Mission in World War II |year=2016 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=9781610396547}}
• {{cite book |first=Susan |last=Williams |author-mask=2 |title=White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa |year=2021 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=9781541768291}}

: {{note|Alpha|α}}on the abdication of Edward VIII

: {{note|Beta|β}}on the founding president of Botswana

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/client/susan-williams Official website]

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Category:Living people

Category:21st-century British historians

Category:21st-century British women writers

Category:Academics of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London

Category:British women biographers

Category:British women historians

Category:Historians of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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