Williams was born in a small village in Cheshire.
She has an Honours degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University and a Master of Philosophy research degree in English literature from Liverpool University.
Her research thesis was on the links between Wilkie Collins and nineteenth-century art.
She enjoys looking at paintings and the plot of Jerome and the Seraph is arranged around a painting by Sir John Roddam Spencer Stanhope called "Thoughts of the Past".
Williams has been a schoolteacher, college lecturer, journalist and secretary.