Audio Clips
Pipe Major J. McWilliams composed by Donald MacLeod. Piper: Jack Lee
My Gentle Joanie
by Pipe Major James L. McWilliams
News & Events
- A Secret Of The Sphinx... read more
- Pipe Major Jim McWilliams... read more
- What The Critics Say... read more
- A SECRET OF THE SPHINX has been chosen as one of the five finalists by BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARDS for 2017!... read more
My Books
A Secret Of The Sphinx
Spring of 1798: Young Rory MacHugh leaves his Blackfoot World for an Ancient World. There determination, versatility, and several unique friends enable him to survive many new lives -- a British sailor, an Egyptian Mameluke, a convict, a Secret Agent, a French Grenadier, a Highland soldier, and a forbidden lover in an Egyptian court. But the most devastating is his first encounter with the man destined plunge the world into war and to become Rory’s own personal demon, the young General Napoleon Bonaparte
The Assassins
Rory returns to Paris in 1803 as bodyguard for the mysterious Count Méhée de la Touche, There Rory’s affair with the glamorous Duchess of Abrantès lands him in the notorious mountaintop prison, the fortress of Bitche. After a unique escape Rory becomes embroiled in several assassination attempts aimed at his very personal enemy, the Emperor Napoleon.
Blackthorn
My final public performance as a piper was with BLACKTHORN, in 2013. Here we are playing a set of three of my compositions, “The Way Things Might Have Been”, “Flaming Bonnets”, and “The Portuguese Ceilildh”. I spent some of the happiest days of my life playing with this group of fine musicians and friends. Here you can hear me playing both the Great Highland Bagpipe and the Scottish Small Pipes (sometimes both at once -- a modern technical miracle).