Richmal Crompton

Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969) was a popular English writer, best known for her Just William series of books, humorous short stories, and to a lesser extent adult fiction books.
Life
Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, the second child of the Rev. Edward John Sewell Lamburn, a Classics master at Bury Grammar School and his wife Clara (née Crompton). Her brother, John Battersby Crompton Lamburn, also became a writer, remembered under the name John Lambourne for his fantasy novel The Kingdom That Was (1931) and under the name "John Crompton" for his books on natural history.
Richmal Crompton attended St Elphin's Boarding School for the daughters of the clergy, originally based in Warrington, Lancashire. She later moved with the school to a new location in Darley Dale, near Matlock, Derbyshire in 1904. In order to further her chosen career as a schoolteacher, she won a scholarship to Royal Holloway College, part of the University of London in Englefield Green, Surrey. Crompton graduated in 1914 with a BA honours degree in Classics (II class). She took part in the Women's Suffrage movement.
In 1914, she returned to St Elphin's as a Classics mistress and later, at age 27, moved to Bromley High School in southeast London where she began her writing in earnest. Cadogan (1993) shows that she was an excellent and committed teacher at both schools. Having contracted poliomyelitis in 1923 she was left without the use of her right leg. She gave up her teaching career and began to write full-time.
She never married and had no children; she was an aunt and a great-aunt. Her William stories and her other literature were extremely successful and, three years after she retired from teaching, Crompton was able to afford to have a house (The Glebe) built in Bromley Common for herself and her mother, Clara.
Crompton died in 1969 at the age of 78, after a heart attack, in Farnborough Hospital.
Crompton left the copyright of all her books to her niece, Mrs Richmal C. L. Ashbee of Chelsfield, Kent; along with £57,623.
Work
Crompton's best known books are the William stories, about a mischievous 11-year-old schoolboy and his band of friends, known as "The Outlaws". Her first published short story featuring William was "Rice Mould Pudding", published in Home Magazine in 1919. (She had written "The Outlaws" in 1917, but it was not published until later.) In 1922, the first collection, entitled Just William, was published. She wrote 38 other William books throughout her life. The last, William the Lawless, was published posthumously in 1970.
The William books sold over 12 million copies in the United Kingdom alone. They have been adapted for films, stage-plays, and numerous radio and television series. Illustrations by Thomas Henry contributed to their success.
Crompton saw her real work as writing adult fiction. Starting with The Innermost Room (1923), she wrote 41 novels for adults and published nine collections of short stories. Their focus was generally village life in the Home Counties. Though these novels have the same inventiveness and lack of sentimentality as the 'William' books, after the Second World War such literature had an increasingly limited appeal.
Even William was originally created for a grown-up audience, as she saw Just William as a potboiler (Cadogan, 1993). She was pleased by its success, but seemed frustrated that her other novels and short stories did not receive the same recognition. Her first published story was published in The Girl's Own Paper in 1918, concerning a little boy named Thomas, a forerunner of William who reacts against authority. Crompton tried several times to reformulate William for other audiences. Jimmy (1949) was aimed at younger children, and Enter – Patricia (1927) at girls. Crompton wrote two more Jimmy books, but no more Patricia, and neither was as successful as William.
Crompton never disclosed the source of inspiration for the main character William; different opinions exist. According to the actor John Teed, whose family lived next door to Crompton, the model for William was Crompton's nephew Tommy:
Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.
The William books have been translated into sixteen or seventeen languages (Cadogan, 1993).
List of published works
The publication dates are for the UK.
Just William short story collections
Just William, 1922
More William, 1922
William Again, 1923
William the Fourth, 1924
Still William, 1925
William the Conqueror, 1926
William the Outlaw, 1927
William in Trouble, 1927
William the Good, 1928
William, 1929
William the Bad, 1930
William's Happy Days, 1930
William's Crowded Hours, 1931
William the Pirate, 1932
William the Rebel, 1933
William the Gangster, 1934
William the Detective, 1935
Sweet William, 1936
William the Showman, 1937
William the Dictator, 1938
William and A.R.P., 1939 (also published as William's Bad Resolution, 1956)
William and the Evacuees, 1940 (also published as William and the Film Star, 1956)
William Does His Bit, 1941
William Carries On, 1942
William and The Brains Trust, 1945
Just William's Luck, 1948
William the Bold, 1950
William and the Tramp, 1952
William and the Moon Rocket, 1954
William and the Artist's Model, 1956
William and the Space Animal, 1956
William's Television Show, 1958
William the Explorer, 1960
William's Treasure Trove, 1962
William and the Witch, 1964
William and the Pop Singers, 1965
William and the Masked Ranger, 1966
William the Superman, 1968
William the Lawless, 1970
Just William plays
William and the Artist's Model, 1956
William the Terrible, BBC Radio Plays volume 1, 2008, published by David Schutte
William the Lionheart, BBC Radio Plays volume 2, 2008, published by David Schutte
William the Peacemaker, BBC Radio Plays volume 3, 2009, published by David Schutte
William the Avenger, BBC Radio Plays volume 4, 2009, published by David Schutte
William the Smuggler, BBC Radio Plays volume 5, 2010, published by David Schutte
William's Secret Society, BBC Radio Plays volume 6, 2010, published by David Schutte
Miscellaneous books for children
Enter – Patricia, 1927
Jimmy, 1949
Jimmy Again, 1951
Jimmy the Third, a compilation of stories from Jimmy and Jimmy Again, 1965
Others
The Innermost Room, 1923
The Hidden Light, 1924
Anne Morrison, 1925
The Wildings, 1925
David Wilding, 1926
The House, 1926 (also published as Dread Dwelling)
Kathleen and I, and, of Course, Veronica, 1926 (short stories)
Millicent Dorrington, 1927
A Monstrous Regiment, 1927 (short stories)
Leadon Hill, 1927
The Thorn Bush, 1928
Roofs Off!, 1928
The Middle Things, 1928 (short stories)
Felicity Stands By, 1928 (short stories)
Sugar and Spice and Other Stories, 1928 (short stories)
Mist and Other Stories, 1928 (short stories), republished in May 2015 by Sundial Press as "MIST And Other Ghost Stories"
The Four Graces, 1929
Abbot's End, 1929
Ladies First, 1929 (short stories)
Blue Flames, 1930
Naomi Godstone, 1930
The Silver Birch and Other Stories, 1931 (short stories)
Portrait of a Family, 1931
The Odyssey of Euphemia Tracy, 1932
Marriage of Hermione, 1932
The Holiday, 1933
Chedsy Place, 1934
The Old Man's Birthday, 1934
Quartet, 1935
Caroline, 1936
The First Morning, 1936 (short stories)
There Are Four Seasons, 1937
Journeying Wave, 1938
Merlin Bay, 1939
Steffan Green, 1940
Narcissa, 1941
Mrs Frensham Describes a Circle, 1942
Weatherly Parade, 1944
Westover, 1946
The Ridleys, 1947
Family Roundabout, 1948, republished in 2001 by Persephone Books
Frost at Morning, 1950
Linden Rise, 1952
The Gypsy's Baby, 1954
Four in Exile, 1954
Matty and the Dearingroydes, 1956
Blind Man's Buff, 1957
Wiseman's Folly, 1959
The Inheritor, 1960
The House in the Wood - and other stories, 2022
Other Short Stories
Half-an-Hour. Adelaide Observer, 23 December 1922
Legacy
Richmal Crompton's archives are held at Roehampton University, London and at Wat Tyler Country Park, Pitsea, where some members of her family lived. A public house in Bromley is named in her honour and contains framed prints and texts from the William series.
The novel and TV series Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was inspired by Just William, with the premise being the Antichrist in the place of William, and his gang ("The Them") in place of "The Outlaws". The initial working title for the novel was "William the Antichrist". Another of Pratchett's works, the Johnny Maxwell series, was also inspired by Just William, Pratchett stating that it was based very loosely on an idea of what Just William would be like in a 1990s setting.
References
Sources and further reading
Jane McVeigh: Richmal Crompton, author of Just William : a literary life, Cham : Springer International Publishing, 2022,
Manchester Authors, Writers and Poets Page at the Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester.
Biography at Just William website.
External links
1890 births
1969 deaths
20th-century British short story writers
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English women writers
Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London
English children's writers
English short story writers
English women novelists
Just William
People associated with the University of Roehampton
People from the Borough of Basildon
Writers from Bury, Greater Manchester
People from Chislehurst
English writers with disabilities