Gordon Williams was in a rush. The deadline was looming for his pulp fiction novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, and he still had to write the final scene. In the book, George Magruder, an American professor, has accidentally run over and injured a young man and taken him to his house. The man turns out to be a suspected child murderer, and before long a vigilante mob is heading for Magruder’s remote Cornish home.
As the action unfolds, the mildmannered American transforms into a improvised Green Beret and takes on the avengers. Finally, breathlessly, all is resolved in an explosion of violence. Williams typed “The End” and sealed his manuscript in an A4 envelope just in time to catch the afternoon post.
The Siege of Trencher’s Farm was made into a film in 1971 by Sam Peckinpah
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