Gordon Williams (writer) manager Tommy Docherty. In 1971, his novel "The Siege of Trencher's Farm" was controversially filmed as "Straw Dogs". Sam Peckinpah's cinematic treatment marked a watershed in the depiction of sexual violence in the cinema though the most controversial scenes are absent from the book. Other film work includes "The Man Who Had Power Over Women", from his own novel, and "Tree of Hands", as scriptwriter from a Ruth Rendell novel. Williams also wrote the book of Ridley Scott's film "The Duellists". In 1976 film producer Harry Saltzman employed Williams to rewrite the script for "The Micronauts". Although the film was
The Siege of Trencher's Farm for the book came from the panic and sense of siege where Williams lived in Devon when "The Mad Axeman" Frank Mitchell escaped from nearby Dartmoor Prison. Williams wrote the book in nine days – "he dashed off the final page to catch the post office van" – and received £300 from the publisher. "The List" included the book among its "100 Best Scottish Books of all Time", dubbing it "a deliberation on how traditional masculine values find a place in modern society". Author Ian Rankin wrote that "This novel is quite different to the eventual movie version, being a