Just William - Richmal Crompton (Just William - Richmal Crompton)

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Product:	Just William - Richmal Crompton
Date:	06.10.00 (642 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very funny

Disadvantages: -

The adventures of William Brown, mischievous school-boy and timeless hero of every rebel with a cause, were chronicled by Richmal Crompton between 1922 and 1969. They make hilarious reading for children and adults. Martin Jarvis’ justly praised radio adaptations are constantly one of the BBC’s best-selling audio-books (£9 a throw, for 12 excellently characterised readings). I see Amazon are currently selling a boxed set of the first ten books for £20 (ISBN: 0330391445).

Due to the longevity of the series, William’s adventures reflected the changing social fabric of middle-class English village life over the twentieth century, from the days of maidservants, to the air-raid ‘precorshuns’, through to space travel and pop stars.

Crompton’s skill lay not only in her skilful story-telling, but in the cast of comic characters she created.

William’s gang, the Outlaws, Ginger, Douglas and Henry, who used to meet in the Old Barn, generally after being chased by a farmer, were not the strongest characters. William’s dog was far more memorable - Jumble, the loyal scruffy mongrel that William adored.

Robert was the hopelessly romantic older brother, whose plans to entice the ‘most beautiful girl in the world’ who regularly moved into the next village were always almost foiled by some scheme William ran, with the best intentions in the world, to either protect or assist his brother.

Ethel was the older sister, constantly exasperated by the embarrassing exploits of ‘the boy.’ Ethel’s suitors were a regular source of cash for William, often slipping him a half-crown in return for his rapid absence.

Violet Elizabeth Bott was one of the most famous characters. The daughter of the inventor of ‘Bott’s Digestive Sauce’, so memorably portrayed by Bonnie Langford in the 70’s TV adaptation, her spoilt brat threats to ‘scw
eam and scweam and scweam until I’m sick – and I can’ managed to manipulate William in a powerful way which surprised even him. Girls were all soppy – except for Jo, a tom-boy and honorary Outlaw, who even William had to admit was all right – ‘I s’pose’.

Hubert Lane was William’s chubby-cheeked arch enemy. If there was a perfect pen-knife or air-gun in the village shop, you could guarantee that Hubert Lane would be trying to thwart William’s attempts to buy them. Boo to Hubert and all the Hubert Laneites, wherever they may be.

The illustrations of Thomas Henry were the perfect accompaniment to Crompton’s tales – his ink drawings of the situations in which William so often found himself, tie and socks pulled down and askew, have a ruddy energy which precisely matches that of Crompton’s writing.

Richmal Crompton managed to tie these and a host of other characters into stories which had William always ending up in the most ingenious and funny scrapes. Despite writing 38 William books (consisting of ten or so short stories each) her imagination never seemed to wane, drawing classic situations out of such diverse material as unwanted green ties as Christmas presents, escaping pet stag-beetles, hoarded lemon soaps, and vengeful scarecrows. Crompton’s career as a teacher was ended at a young age by the ravages of polio – but her typewriter has introduced many more people to the power, delight and comic potential of the written word than could possibly ever have filled her class rooms.

I used to laugh out very loud when I read (and re-read) the William books as a child. They are a work of love and genius, very English, escapism at its best. Just… brill-iam (forgive me Richmal).

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