Born and brought up in Oldham, Lancashire, England, Williams graduated with a BA Hons in Law and Sociology at Durham University, was called to the bar in 1970.
He practised law for a number of years before changing to a career of legal and commercial work in the construction industry.
Williams came to public attention when his first novel, The Hitler Diaries, was published nine months before the famous Hitler Diaries forgery scandal, and he seemed again prophetic when Farewell to Russia, a novel about a nuclear accident in the USSR, was completed four months before the Chernobyl Disaster.
How to be a Charlatan is winner of the IAC Prize and was commended by Nick Webb (author of A Dictionary of Bullshit) as "Appalling and immoral.
Jim Williams' books have received positive reviews in The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian and The Evening Standard.