The Death of Baha Mousa

A Very British Killing

Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2013 
 
This is the true story of a murder that sums up the stink of invading Iraq and why the Iraq story is far from over.

[An] incendiary, eloquent account... A brilliantly researched indictment which argues that torture is endemic in the military

For all its forensic detail, the book grips us emotionally, and has as keen a sense of storytelling as a horror story or courtroom drama. Ultimately, the greatest achievement of this incendiary, eloquent and angry book is that it humanises Mousa beyond the iconic and infamous figure he has become in his death

Judges of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2013

This is a landmark book. Fluently, meticulously, A. T. Williams allows us to understand both the murderous nature of colonial war and the insidious moral corruption behind its institutional facades

What to do after reading it? some might put this book away and try to forget about it, the way you would a bad dream. Others will feel changed by the awareness. A few will channel their feelings into action. There can't be any better definition of political writing at its most excellent

Andrew Williams is an academic lawyer with the tenacity of a detective and the literary flair of the best kind of investigative journalist, and his account of the fate of Baha Mousa, a young Iraqi man who was beaten to death by his guards in a British military prison, is one of the most important pieces of writing to come out of the Iraq War.

Richard Lloyd Parry, author of PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS

Anyone who hopes to avoid repeating the such calamities in future wars should read this book

Jack Fairweather, author of A WAR OF CHOICE

Of immense value to anyone interested in the conduct, and misconduct, of war in our time

A. T. Williams won the George Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2013 for his book A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa. He lives in Warwickshire.

On 14 September 2003 Baha Mousa, a hotel receptionist, was arrested in Basra by British troops and taken to a military base for questioning. 
 
Less than forty-eight hours later he was dead. 
 
In A Very British Killing A.T. Williams tells the inside story of this crime and its aftermath, exposing the casual brutality, bureaucratic apathy, and instituional failure to hold people criminally responsible for Mousa's death. 
 
What it reveals about Britain and its political and military institutions is explosive.

A. T. Williams

[An] earnest, unsettling book… Williams is a thoughtful, lucid writer, with a lawyer’s appetite for detail… A Passing Fury is heartfelt, moving and often powerfully written.

Williams… carries the reader along in his fluent and passionate prose

A haunting, sensitive and thoughtful study

Absorbing... Williams skilfully reveals a chaotic world in which war crimes investigation teams, generally lacking even the most basic resources, were left to do their best in extremely trying circumstances

Williams has put together an original polemic against our assumptions about these trials, including those at Nuremberg.

Williams is a first-rate storyteller who has a gift for bringing the past to life in an accessible and compelling way.

The book [has] an attractively meditative quality.

Splendid book… Much more than a historical narrative and assessment… This is a superb book which offers no easy answers but invites the reader to join its author on a grim odyssey.

This is a fine book that does a great job of debunking one of the most enduring myths in history.

Searching for Justice at the End of World War II

A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year 
Shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction 2017 
 
After the Second World War, the Nuremberg Tribunal became a symbol of justice in the face of tyranny, aggression and atrocity. But it was only a fragment of retribution as, with their Allies, the British embarked on the largest programme of war crimes investigations and trials in history. 
 
This book exposes the deeper truth of this endeavour, moving from the scripted trial of Goering, Hess and von Ribbentrop to the makeshift courtrooms where the SS officers, guards and executioners were prosecuted. It tells the story of the investigators, lawyers and perpetrators and asks the question: was justice done?

A. T. Williams

Praise for A Passing Fury

[An] earnest, unsettling book… Williams is a thoughtful, lucid writer, with a lawyer’s appetite for detail… A Passing Fury is heartfelt, moving and often powerfully written.

Williams… carries the reader along in his fluent and passionate prose

A haunting, sensitive and thoughtful study

[An] earnest, unsettling book… Williams is a thoughtful, lucid writer, with a lawyer’s appetite for detail… A Passing Fury is heartfelt, moving and often powerfully written.

Williams… carries the reader along in his fluent and passionate prose

A haunting, sensitive and thoughtful study

[An] earnest, unsettling book… Williams is a thoughtful, lucid writer, with a lawyer’s appetite for detail… A Passing Fury is heartfelt, moving and often powerfully written.

Williams… carries the reader along in his fluent and passionate prose

A haunting, sensitive and thoughtful study

Books by A. T. Williams

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