William Riley was an English novelist. He was born in Laisterdyke, Bradford. He wrote 39 books using the name W. Riley, mostly fiction and mostly published by Herbert Jenkins Ltd. After an education at Bradford Grammar School he entered his father's business in textiles, but two years later the firm diversified and William led the innovative new business in the sale of magic lantern slides and equipment. The business was successful until 1914, when, with the onset of World War I, it failed: Riley then developed a second career as a writer, having already published Windyridge. His first novelWindyridge was written as a series of weekly chapters, in the winter of early 1911, to entertain his wife and two friends, the Bolton sisters, whose parents and third sister had all recently died. He quotes himself as saying "I tell you what I'll do, I'll write a story and read each chapter to you as I go along, week by week. It may help to keep us from brooding". The story is set in the village of Hawksworth near Baildon. He completed the tale in early 1912, having paused in his writing over the summer, and was persuaded to submit it for publication. He agreed to send it to just one publishing house, and chose this by writing on slips of paper the names of three established houses and the novice publisher Herbert Jenkins. It was this last slip which he selected, and Jenkins agreed to publish the book, as his firm's first publication. In 1919 he moved to Silverdale, Lancashire for the sake of his wife's health, and named his house Windyridge after his novel. In his autobiography, Sunset Reflections, he recalls tales of life in Silverdale, where amongst other activities he was chair of the Building Committee for the Gaskell Memorial Hall. Bradford University Library's Special Collections department holds an archive of Willie Riley's manuscripts and other papers and a collection of his books. His death was recorded in obituaries in The Times and other local and national newspapers. He was buried in the village graveyard at Silverdale, along with his first wife Clara.
