Porter Williams (or Porter Williams International) was the name of a fictional international firm of accountants in Beyond Enkription, the first novel in the autobiographical espionage series, The Burlington Files^[1]. The series was nominally written by Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington, upon whose life and times the series is based.

In reality Porter Williams was Coopers and Lybrand (C&L) which in the seventies was one of the largest accountancy firms in the world. Bill Fairclough worked for Coopers and Lybrand for 14 years from 1969 to 1983 mostly in the UK, but also in the Bahamas and the USA. Coopers and Lybrand later became part of what is now PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

A few of the main characters in Beyond Enkription, notably Sir Peter Stafford, Graham Sidney-Smith and Christopher Albury, were based on the characters of real Coopers and Lybrand partners Bill Fairclough worked with during his career. Episodes described in Beyond Enkription involving Coopers and Lybrand partners and staff are by and large based on fact although names and dates may have been changed for purposes of confidentiality.

Other (lesser) characters in Beyond Enkription that were based on actual (unnamed) Coopers and Lybrand partners and staff included:

• George Franklin (Sir Peter Stafford's replacement as head of Porter Williams International) who was based in Porter Williams’ London office.

• Joe Ritchie, an articled clerk who worked in Porter Williams’ London office.

• Jonty Granville-Clifton, a qualified UK chartered accountant, who worked for Porter Williams in their Nassau office.

• Paul Rutherford, a qualified UK chartered accountant, who worked as an audit manager for Porter Williams in their Nassau office

• Tom Anderson, who at that time was a newly appointed audit partner in Porter Williams’ London office, with whom Bill Fairclough had previously worked.

In addition, there was the double agent Raj Gupta Khan who features heavily in Beyond Enkription ostensibly as an audit manager based in Porter Williams’ London office. His character was based on an actual audit manager in Coopers and Lybrand's London office. That audit manager, who for legal reasons cannot be named, was in fact a double agent working in a junior capacity for both MI6 and the Pakistani equivalent of MI6 or the CIA, the ISI.

Bill Fairclough's activities whilst working at Coopers and Lybrand that can be publicly disclosed are summarised below. The extract below has been copied from Bill Fairclough's biography in Everipedia. Other biographies that put his work at Coopers and Lybrand in the perspective of his career are available at:

• http://bit.ly/Bill_Fairclough

• https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Bill_Fairclough

• https://wikispooks.com/wiki/User:DoubleAgent

• https://en.everybodywiki.com/Bill_Fairclough

• https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Fairclough-119&public=1

“@Coopers & Lybrand

Bill Fairclough worked at Coopers and Lybrand (named Cooper Brothers earlier) from 1969 to 1983. During the fourteen years he worked in the accountancy profession, Bill helped establish Coopers and Lybrand itself aiding it to become one of the Big Four global accountancy firms. He also worked in their Technical Department in the seventies. His bread and butter work before that was for clients and included the following.

(1) Working on audits, investigations and restructurings of British Steel, British Telecom and British Leyland.

(2) Undertaking audits and investigations of listed companies (e.g. Rio Tinto Zinc), local councils, banks and leasing companies.

(3) Carrying out liquidations, audits and investigations of banks and other financial organisations in the Caribbean.

(4) Helping out on many one offs such as the start-up and subsequent sale of a Peruvian investment house.

While working in Coopers and Lybrand's Technical Department and reviewing audit work undertaken by the UK firm, he wrote (with others) the firm’s Manual of Auditing. He also wrote several UK statements of standard accounting practice (SSAPs) and other publications (e.g. on the USA's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related anti-boycott legislation). Later, he became the first Secretary to Coopers and Lybrand's International Executive Committee reporting to the International Firm’s chief executive officer, the first of whom was Sir Brandon Gough.

At Coopers and Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), as Secretary to the International Executive Committee, Bill Fairclough was also involved in helping investigate major frauds encountered by the firm internationally. These investigations included suspected malpractices involving Coopers and Lybrand's international partners (e.g. straightforward fraud or compliance with coercion by terrorists). From the mid-seventies he was based in either the UK, the USA or the Bahamas and worked in Europe, the Caribbean and the Americas.”