Richmal Crompton Books In Order

Publication Order of William Books

Publication Order of Jimmy Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Richmal Crompton was a well known English novelist, who liked to write children’s books and adult fiction. She was particularly popular for writing the long-running Just William book series, which were published during the early and mid 20th century. Crompton was also a teacher and a writer of humorous short stories and fictional stories for adults to a lesser extent. Her sentimental stories in Just William novels are widely popular all across the UK even today. Author Crompton was born as Richmal Crompton Lamburn on November 15, 1890, in Bury, Lancashire. She was the second child of her parents, Edward J.S. Lamburn and Clara Crompton Lamburn. Crompton’s elder brother, John Battersby Lamburn, was also a writer. He was best known in the literary world as John Crompton for writing natural history books and as John Lambourne for writing the 1931 fantasy novel called The Kingdom That Was John Crompton.

Author Crompton completed her schooling from the St. Elphin Boarding School in Warrington, Lancashire. In 1904, she was transferred to Darley Dale, along with the school. Crompton had chosen to become a school teacher and had won the Royal Holloway College scholarship to study at the Englefield Green-based London University. She graduated with a degree in BA honors in CLassics II class in 1914. At around the same time, Crompton had taken part in the nationwide movement of Women’s Suffrage. She moved back to St. Elphin’s in 1914 to teach as a mistress of Classics. When Crompton was 27 years old, she moved to southeast London and joined Bromley High School, where she also started her writing interest. Crompton was highly committed to her teaching duties at both the schools and was quite excellent at her job. In 1923, she contracted poliomyelitis that affected her right leg and left it completely unusable. Subsequently, Crompton gave up the teaching job and chose to focus on her writing career as a full-timer.

When Crompton was in her 40s, she underwent mastectomy for treating breast cancer. Crompton never married and didn’t have any children. However, she enjoyed being an aunt and a great aunt to several members of her family. It was after her William novels became successful that Crompton was able to build a house for herself and her mom in Bromley Common. Despite her disabilities, Crompton participated as a volunteer for the Fire Service during World War II. Her death occurred on January 11, 1969, in Farnborough Hospital, Kent. In her worldwide popular series, Crompton has described the story of a mischievous young school-boy named William Brown and his group of friends called The Outlaws. The first short story depicting William Brown was published in 1919 in the Home Magazine. Crompton had first written The Outlaws in 1917, but published it later in her career. In 1922, she published the first collection called Just William in 1922.

Crompton wrote 38 more books featuring William Brown in her entire life. Her last book in this successful series, William the Lawless, was released in 1970 posthumously. The William stories have sold more than 12 million printed copies altogether in the UK alone. They have been adapted into stage plays, movies, and many TV and radio series. One of the essential factors for the series’ success was Thomas Henry’s illustrations. Author Crompton believed that her real work was writing adult fiction. She had started by writing The Innermost Room in 1923 and had gone on to write 41 books for adults. Crompton also published nine short story collections. The focus of Crompton’s books was generally the village life in the Home Counties. However, they had the same lack of sentimentality and inventiveness as the William books. Following the end of the Second World War, this type of literature had a very limited appeal. Even the book, William, was originally intended for the grown-up audience.

Crompton was highly pleased by the book’s success, but she was not happy that her other short stories and novels didn’t receive the same kind of recognition. In the later years of her writing career, Crompton tried to reformulate her books for the readers of different categories several others. Like the 1927 book, Enter Patricia was aimed at girls and the 1949 novel Jimmy was meant for younger children. There are a number of opinions and speculations regarding Crompton’s source of inspiration for the central character, William Brown, however, she never disclosed anything personally. It was presumed that she had come up with the character by mixing her observations of kids and her imagination.

Crompton’s niece Kate Massey claims that she captured the life of an eleven-year-old boy based on her brother Jack. The fiction work of author Crompton centers around social and family life. One important aspect of her stories is depicting kids as puzzled onlookers of the ways of society. The novels of William Brown have undergone translations in nine different languages and have been sold worldwide. Some of the well-known movie adaptations of Crompton’s books include Just William, William at the Circus, Just William’s Luck, etc. Besides these, many other TV, theater, and radio series were also developed during the mid and late 20th century.

The Just William series written by author Richal Crompton is comprised of 39 books in total, released between 1922 and 1970. All the books revolve around school-going boy, William Brown and his circle of mischievous friends. An interesting book of this series is entitled ‘More William’. It was published by Armada in 1971 after its first release in 1922. In this book, William’s Aunt Evangeline is shown receiving a centipede on her plate on Christmas Day. Also, the clock in the library was dismantled in a mysterious way.

William continues with his mischievous activities in an attempt to please the adults in his family. Because of his repeated mischiefs, his family becomes fed up with him and decides to take strict action against him. Another popular book of the series is called ‘William Again’. It was first published in 1923 before Macmillan UK re-released it in 1995. This book shows that William and his friend Ginger face bankruptcy. They do not have enough money to even buy sweets. William gets the idea of collecting money by selling off the twin cousins of Ginger. This act again puts William’s family in an embarrassing situation.