M J Johnson
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Books
    • Niedermayer & Hart >
      • Reviews for N & H
      • The Prologue
      • Sample the Book
      • Animations
    • Roadrage >
      • Reviews for Roadrage
      • Roadrage Sample
  • Contact Me

Just William

10/7/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
I've been doing quite a bit of serious reading, research etc for the book I'm currently working on, and ploughing through The Richard Burton Diaries, although hugely enjoyable, was massive with interesting footnotes (which I am pathologically unable to avoid) on just about every page. Something must always be read of course, otherwise a day wouldn't be complete. And when in doubt about what might be next, I sometimes turn to the book guru at my side and get her advice. She takes books very seriously, and seeking her assistance is a bit like paying a visit to a medical practitioner.

Two minutes is generally all it takes. "I know," she said, "How about Just William."

"I haven't read any Richmal Crompton since I was a boy," I said. They were always a firm favourite then, especially if I was off school with a mild temperature. Pure bliss, a glass of lemon barley water on the bedside table and a 'William' to read. Many of these books which I'd have read around the mid-sixties were published by Armada with new illustrations. These are more cartoonish than the charming originals by Thomas Henry and the collections of stories themselves were cobbled together from several books and given new titles. This wouldn't have bothered me as a boy, but as a man I like to read things in the order they are written and how an author intended. The book guru was on the case and returned from our back bedroom (yes, books in every room!) with a hardback copy of Just William that bore the inscription:

To Ian
With Best Wishes
From Wynne
Christmas 1957

Although Wynne went on to become a distinguished professor of Mathematics, I doubt he was writing in such a well practised hand, being only two years old in 1957 as I was! Now here's an interesting piece of synchronicity; the last time I saw Wynne was at Theatr (no E in Welsh version) Gwynedd, Bangor, North Wales when I was performing with The Welsh Drama Company in the late seventies. However, I received a message from him completely out of the blue only yesterday - he'd found me through this blog and used the website Contact Form to email me! Now isn't that incredible - that I was currently reading a book with his name in it? Reconnecting with people I'd lost touch with has been the unexpected great bonus of keeping this blog and website going.

Anyway, back to Richmal Crompton (1890 - 1969) and the William Stories. She was born in Bury, Lancashire, the daughter of a clergyman. She graduated in 1914 from The Royal Holloway College, part of The University of London, with a BA in Classics, and was involved in the women's suffrage movement. In 1923, after contracting polio, she lost the use of her right leg, which seems to have precipitated giving up her teaching career to write full time. She wrote all-told thirty-nine William books throughout her lifetime, the first being Just William (1922) and the last William the Lawless (1970, published posthumously). She wrote over a hundred other books, many for adults, but it is the William books that she is remembered for.

And what was it like reading Just William again? I can only describe the experience as sublime. For someone who never married and didn't have children of her own, Richmal Crompton manages to get right under the skin of an eleven year old boy in a way that no one else, to my mind, has ever done better. These highly amusing stories about force of nature William Brown and his band of pals who call themselves The Outlaws are pure delight. For the past week the guru can testify to the fact that there has been a good deal of chuckling and a few whoops of delight coming from my side of the bed. Incredible to think that Just William was over forty years old when I first read it, and is now over ninety. We read the stories to our son when he was small and he lapped them up. They have a sense of period obviously, and are of the time when they were written, but they haven't really dated. Maybe this is because she knew her subject so well and eleven year old boys haven't really changed very much. I mean to say what's a mere ninety years in the evolution of boys! Four hundred odd years ago William Shakespeare wrote:

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.


So, no change there then!


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Available in paperback and ebook:
    Amazon.co.uk
    Amazon.com
    Picture
    Available in paperback and ebook:
    Amazon.co.uk
    Amazon.com
    Picture
    Available in paperback and ebook:
    Amazon.co.uk
    ​Amazon.com
    my read shelf:
    M.J. Johnson's book recommendations, liked quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists (read shelf)

    M J Johnson

    You can join Martin on
    Facebook
    If you'd like to subscribe to this blog, click on the RSS Feed button below

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Books
    Family Matters
    Film
    Historic/Factual
    Might Raise A Smile
    Miscellaneous
    Music
    Niedermayer & Hart
    Places Worth A Visit
    Roadrage
    Tea 'n' Coffee
    Theatre
    TV Stuff
    TV Stuff
    Wales
    Wilhelm & Laszlo
    Writing

    Archives

    April 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    June 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011

© 2018 M J Johnson. All rights reserved.
             Contact               Blog                 N & H                 Roadrage