Richmal Crompton was a teacher in
south east London who took up writing seriously in the early 1920s after polio
forced her to give up her teaching career. It was about this time she created
her 11 year old anti hero William Brown, popularly known as Just William after
the title of her first collection of stories about him. She continued to write
stories about William for almost 50 years, although it’s said she became
somewhat resentful of the stories’ popularity, as she really saw herself as a
writer of adult fiction.
Maybe it was the fact that I was
generally a very well behaved, studious kid myself which made the scruffy, anti-authority,
anarchic William appeal to me so much. Maybe it was just because the stories
were so funny and well written that I loved William. I think it’s quite
possible that Thomas Henry’s illustrations had something to do with it as well.
Thomas Henry, although barely remembered now, was already a prolific and
successful magazine illustrator by the time he was commissioned to illustrate
Just William, and the William books kept him gainfully employed until his death
in 1962. I’m a little frustrated that I just haven’t quite captured William’s
face correctly in this copied sketch. Not quite.
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