Just William

Just William is the first book of children's short stories about William Brown written by Richmal Crompton, published in 1922. Just William is also sometimes used as a title for the series as a whole, and is also the name of various television, film and radio adaptations of the books. The William stories first appeared in Home and Happy Mag..

Controversy

William has been criticised by the RSPCA for stories where he is cruel to animals. For example, in one story he paints his dog blue as a circus exhibit. In another he has a competition to see how many rats his dog can kill in a certain time. Some stories have been removed from modern publication, such as William and the Nasties from William The Detective where William suspects a Jewish shop owner of dishonesty and forms a mob to evict him. This story was written in 1935 before the Second World War, and was probably meant as parody or was simply naive. Crompton herself decided the story was inappropriate and had it removed. (The story did however appear in the Armada Paperback edition of William the Detective, published in the 1970's.)

Related Topics:
RSPCA - William and the Nasties - William The Detective - Jewish - 1935 - Second World War - Parody - 1970

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