Who is Richmal Crompton, author of Just William

The first short story about William Brown, an 11 year old schoolboy, appeared in Home Magazine in 1919 and was called 'The Rice Mould'.

This was the beginning of a literary phenomenon. She wrote a total of 38 books about William with the last being published in 1970 the year following her death.

William Brown is a child of a middle class family. He lives with his father, mother and older brother and sister. The family, like many before the Second World War, had servants, so it was a very comfortable existence - or it would have been if it hadn't been for all the mischief that William and the Outlaws got into!

William is perpetually scruffy and grubby. With tie and cap askew he attracts mud and dirt the way a magnet attracts iron filings. He attracts trouble much the same way, even when he's trying to do the right thing, somehow it always goes wrong. No matter how naughty or well meaning Williams is, he is always funny.

Boxed Set of Just William Books
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Ginger: William's best friend who is as untidy and mischievous as our hero. He's William's second in command in the Outlaws.

Henry and Douglas: The other two members of the Outlaws who aren't as grubby or naughty as William and Ginger.

Jumble: William's disreputable little mongrel dog.

Joan: The little girl next door. William has a soft spot for her and she is allowed to be an honorary Outlaw in spite of being a girl.

Violet Elizabeth Bott: Another little girl but she is very spoilt by her wealthy parents and William detests her. She is famous for saying, "I'll thcweam and thcweam 'till I'm thick" (I'll scream and scream until I'm sick) whenever she wanted to get her own way.

Ethel Brown: William's sister who is in her late teens. An attractive redhead, she has many admirers in their village. William does his best to thwart all hope of romance for her.

Robert Brown: William's older brother, also in his late teens or early 20s, who is often enraged by Williams activities especially when they impinge on his own schemes for advancement or to woo a young lady.

Mr John Brown: William's father who is driven to fits of rage by his youngest son's activities.

Mrs Mary Brown: William's long-suffering mother who takes her son's escapades with a stoic placidity, sometimes trying to point out mitigating circumstances.

1. Just William, 1922
2. More William, 1922
3. William Again, 1923
4. William The Fourth, 1924
5. Still William, 1925
6. William the Conqueror, 1926
7. William the Outlaw, 1927
8. William In Trouble, 1927
9. William the Good, 1928
10. William, 1929
11. William The Bad, 1930
12. William's Happy Days, 1930
13. William's Crowded Hours, 1931
14. William The Pirate, 1932
15. William The Rebel, 1933
16. William The Gangster, 1934
17. William The Detective, 1935
18. Sweet William, 1936
19. William The Showman, 1937
20. William The Dictator, 1938
21. William and Air Raid Precautions, 1939 (also published as William's Bad Resolutions, 1956)
22. William and the Evacuees, 1940 (also published as William and the Film Star, 1956)
23. William Does His Bit, 1941
24. William Carries On, 1942
25. William and the Brains Trust, 1945
26. Just William's Luck, 1948
27. William - the Bold, 1950
28. William and the Tramp, 1952
29. William and the Moon Rocket, 1954
30. William and the Space Animal, 1956
31. William's Television Show, 1958
32. William the Explorer, 1960
33. William's Treasure Trove, 1962
34. William and the Witch, 1964
35. William and the Pop Singers, 1965
William the Ancient Briton, 1965 (Compendium of all the stories books).
36. William and the Masked Ranger, 1966
37. William the Superman, 1968
38. William the Lawless, 1970

Buy it from the BBC

So successful were the books that they were transferred to other media. The first movie version of Just William was released in 1940 - Richard Lupino played William and Roddy McDowell played his best friend Ginger. These were followed by Just William's Luck, and William at the Circus, both released in 1948.

The BBC put on a radio series of the stories in 1946, a play called William and the Artist's Model in 1956 and many readings of the short stories, all read by Martin Jarvis who did a brilliant job of bringing the characters to life. These are still available from Amazon or the BBC.

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in 1890 at Bury in Lancashire, north-east England. Her father was the Reverend Edward John Sewell Lamburn who taught Classics at the local Grammar School.

She attended a boarding school for the daughters of clergy, first in Warrington, also in Lancashire. Later the school moved near the pretty town of Matlock, Derbyshire, to the south of Lancashire.

She wanted to follow in her father's footsteps as a school teacher and she won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway College in London. She graduated in 1914 and joined the Women's Suffrage Movement (campaigning organization for votes for women). In the same year she returned to her boarding school as a Classics teacher.

Three years later she moved to Bromley, on the edge of south-east London to teach at its high school. Unfortunately, in 1923 she caught poliomyelitis (polio) which left her with a paralysed right leg eventually leading to her giving up teaching to concentrate on writing, an activity she had taken up when she moved to Bromley.

Like many women of that generation, she never married (so many young men were killed in the First World War). Luckily, she was such a successful writer, due largely to the 'William' stories, she was able to pay for a house, The Glebe, to be built in Oakley Road, Bromley where she lived with her mother from 1928 (see picture of plaque above). She died in 1969 at her last home in Chislehurst, London Borough of Bromley.

From her experience as a teacher and as an aunt and great-aunt, she understood and had a good knowledge of children. She also had a gift for bringing the naughty William and his friends to life in such an amusing way that her books charmed adults and were loved by children, many of whom grew up to buy the books for children and grandchildren of their own.

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