Bright Young Things discussion

Richmal Crompton was a hugely popular author: her timeless character, eleven year old William Brown, was the Harry Potter of the 1920s. Children, and parents, would wait anxiously for William's latest adventures before pouncing upon them and racing away to devour more of his exploits.

Here's her Wikipedia page.

As a child I loved the William books. I reread them in my twenties and liked them even more. Absolutely hilarious.

I am just about to start More William...



...having talked about her, and William, with my father in law, and been inspired. I feel little doubt that her comedic magic will still have me laughing out loud.

I shall report back.

What are your thoughts about Richmal Crompton?

I read some as a child and think my cousin and I must have gone to ballet classes with the original for Violet Elizabeth. I don't think I would want to read them now.

Val wrote: "I read some as a child and think my cousin and I must have gone to ballet classes with the original for Violet Elizabeth."

Fantastic Val.

Val wrote: "I don't think I would want to read them now."

Apparently Richmal Crompton also wrote some wonderful works for adults (including Family Roundabout, recently reissued by Persephone).

There's a biography...



Richmal Crompton: The Woman Behind Just William by Mary Cadogan

...that looks worth a read based on the reviews on Goodreads (100% of people liked it) and Amazon.co.uk.

According to Cadogan, so shy of fame was she that she was happy with the fact that, owing to her unusual Christian name, many people assumed she was a man. In this sympathetically written biography, Mary Cadogan provides a portrait of a witty and talented writer, and a celebration of her works. Cadogan is a specialist in the history of children's literature, and her biography of Angela Brazil, You're a Brick Angela!, had the same quirky appeal as this volume.

Val wrote: " I don't think I would want to read them now."

Here's a funny thing. I've just realised that the books that I read as a child, and reread as an adult, were the Jennings books, and not the William books. As I was reading, and quite enjoying "More William", I was wondering where his best friend would appear. That's what helped me to realise I was thinking of Jennings, and his best friend Darbishire.

Perhaps I should start a thread for Anthony Buckeridge? Sadly the timing is not right. The first Jennings book, Jennings Goes to School, appeared in 1950 and new titles were published regularly until the mid-1970s (the last for fourteen years was Jennings at Large in 1977, the only book to feature Jennings during the school holidays), with two more in the 1990s (Jennings Again in 1991 and That's Jennings in 1994).

I discovered Richmal Crompton about 2 years ago. I was going through some stressful times and was looking for humorous books. The trouble is that a lot of modern humor books focus on bathroom or sexual humor that just isn't my thing. So I looked for older authors and found a few, like P.G. Wodehouse. Then I saw a few mentions of the Just William books.

As I am in the US the books aren't easy to find here so I ended up downloading the first book from Project Gutenberg. I loved it so much I started buying used copies of the books from the UK.

Although the books are meant for children, they are witty and clever enough to appeal to adults. One of my favorite stories is called A Busy Day, from the More William book. It is a Christmas story, but there is nothing saccharine or sweet about it. William is just himself, getting into trouble without really meaning to, sometimes with his little cousin Jimmy. It also has one of my favorite lines from the Just William stories:

"William's mother's despair was only tempered by the fact that this time William was not the culprit. To William also it was a novel sensation. He realised the advantages of a fellow criminal."

If you want to read a great Just William story, start with A Busy Day. The collection it is in (More William) is free on Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org.

Melissa wrote: "Although the books are meant for children, they are witty and clever enough to appeal to adults."

I'd agree with that. I think adults would get a completely different type of pleasure from William's antics. I also really enjoyed that story from More William. I also thought the description of his inviting the criminal into his house was priceless.