Richmal Crompton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Richmal Crompton Lamburn
Richmal Crompton Lamburn, pictured on the cover of her biography
Born	(1890-11-15)15 November 1890 Bury, Lancashire, England
Died	11 January 1969(1969-01-11) (aged 78) Farnborough Hospital, Bromley, England
Pen name	Richmal Crompton
Occupation	Teacher, novelist, short story writer
Nationality	English
Period	1919 to 1969
Genre	Children's literature, novels, short stories inspiring
Notable works	Just William

Richmal Crompton Lamburn (born November 15, 1890 – died January 11, 1969) was a very popular English writer. She is best known for her funny Just William book series. She also wrote many humorous short stories and some books for adults.

Life Story

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, England. She was the second child of Edward John Sewell Lamburn, who was a Classics teacher (meaning he taught ancient Greek and Roman studies) at Bury Grammar School. Her mother was Clara Crompton. Richmal's brother, John Battersby Crompton Lamburn, also became a writer. He was known for his fantasy novel The Kingdom That Was and books about nature.

Richmal went to St Elphin's Boarding School, which was a school for daughters of clergy (church leaders). The school moved from Warrington to Darley Dale in 1904. Richmal wanted to be a teacher, so she won a scholarship to Royal Holloway College in Englefield Green, Surrey. She graduated in 1914 with a degree in Classics. She also took part in the Women's Suffrage movement, which fought for women's right to vote.

In 1914, Richmal returned to St Elphin's to teach Classics. Later, at age 27, she moved to Bromley High School in London. This is where she started writing seriously. She was a great and dedicated teacher at both schools.

In 1923, Richmal got poliomyelitis, a disease that left her unable to use her right leg. Because of this, she stopped teaching and became a full-time writer. Later, in her forties, she had breast cancer and underwent surgery.

Richmal never married and did not have children of her own, but she was a loving aunt and great-aunt. Her William stories and other books were very successful. Just three years after she stopped teaching, Richmal earned enough money to build a house for herself and her mother in Bromley Common.

Even with her disabilities, Richmal volunteered for the Fire Service during the Second World War.

Richmal Crompton passed away in 1969 at the age of 78. She had a heart attack at Farnborough Hospital. She had been visiting her niece and felt unwell on the drive home. After feeling sick during the night, she called friends the next morning and died soon after being taken to the hospital.

Richmal left the rights to all her books to her niece, Mrs. Richmal C. L. Ashbee.

Her Books and Stories

The cover of the first Just William book

Richmal Crompton's most famous books are the William stories. They are about a mischievous 11-year-old schoolboy named William Brown and his group of friends, who call themselves "The Outlaws."

Her first short story about William, "Rice Mould Pudding," was published in Home Magazine in 1919. The first collection of these stories, called Just William, came out in 1922. She wrote 38 more William books during her life. The last one, William the Lawless, was published in 1970 after she had passed away.

The William books sold over twelve million copies in the United Kingdom alone! They have been made into movies, stage plays, and many radio and television shows. The funny drawings by Thomas Henry also helped make them so popular.

Richmal Crompton actually thought her "real" work was writing books for adults. She wrote 41 novels for adults and nine collections of short stories. These books were often about village life in England. Even though these novels were clever, they didn't become as famous as the William books.

Interestingly, the William stories were first written for grown-ups! Richmal was happy about their success, but she was a bit frustrated that her other novels didn't get as much attention. She tried to create similar characters for other age groups, like Jimmy for younger children and Enter – Patricia for girls, but none were as successful as William.

Richmal never said who inspired the character of William. It was probably a mix of children she knew or taught, combined with her own imagination. A man named John Teed, whose family lived next door to Richmal, believed William was based on her nephew, Tommy:

As a boy I knew Miss Richmal Crompton Lamburn well. She lived quietly with her mother in Cherry Orchard Road, Bromley Common. My family lived next door. In those days it was a small rural village. Miss Lamburn was a delightful unassuming young woman and I used to play with her young nephew Tommy. He used to get up to all sorts of tricks and he was always presumed to be the inspiration for William by all of us. Having contracted polio she was severely crippled and confined to a wheelchair. Owing to her restricted movements she took her setting from her immediate surroundings which contained many of the features described, such as unspoilt woods and wide streams and Biggin Hill Aerodrome, very active in the Twenties.

Richmal Crompton's stories often focus on family and social life. She showed how society can sometimes limit people, but also how it can help them grow. In her books, children, especially William and his Outlaws, almost always find a way to win in the end!

The William books have been translated into nine different languages around the world.

List of Published Works

The dates listed are when the books were published in the UK.

Just William Short Story Collections

Just William Plays

A pub in Bromley named "The Richmal Crompton" after the famous author

• William and the Artist's Model, 1956
• William the Terrible, BBC Radio Plays volume 1, 2008
• William the Lionheart, BBC Radio Plays volume 2, 2008
• William the Peacemaker, BBC Radio Plays volume 3, 2009
• William the Avenger, BBC Radio Plays volume 4, 2009
• William the Smuggler, BBC Radio Plays volume 5, 2010
• William's Secret Society, BBC Radio Plays volume 6, 2010

William-like Books

• Enter – Patricia, 1927
• Jimmy, 1949
• Jimmy Again, 1951
• Jimmy the Third, 1965

Other Books

• The Innermost Room, 1923 (an adult novel)
• The Hidden Light, 1924 (an adult novel)
• Anne Morrison, 1925 (an adult novel)
• Kathleen and I, and, of Course, Veronica, 1926 (short stories)
• A Monstrous Regiment, 1927 (short stories)
• Mist and Other Stories, 1928 (short stories)
• The Four Graces, 1929 (an adult novel)
• Blue Flames, 1930 (an adult novel)
• The Silver Birch and Other Stories, 1931 (short stories)
• The Odyssey of Euphemia Tracy, 1932 (an adult novel)
• Family Roundabout, 1948 (an adult novel)
• The Gypsy's Baby, 1954 (an adult novel)
• Blind Man's Buff, 1957 (an adult novel)

Legacy

Richmal Crompton's old papers and writings are kept at Roehampton University in London and at Wat Tyler Country Park in Pitsea. A public house (a pub) in Bromley is named in her honor. It has pictures and texts from the William series on display.

The famous novel and TV series Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett was inspired by Just William. In Good Omens, the main character is the Antichrist, and his friends are like William's "Outlaws." Terry Pratchett's Johnny Maxwell series was also inspired by Just William, imagining what William would be like in the 1990s.

See also

In Spanish: Richmal Crompton para niños