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Richmal Crompton

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Author

The Resume

    (November 15, 1890-January 11, 1969)
    Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Richmal Crompton Lamburn
    Best known for a series of 38 ‘Just William’ children’s books (1922-70)

Why she might be annoying:

    She considered her now largely forgotten adult books her real work.
    She said of William, ‘I consider him my Frankenstein monster. I’ve tried to get rid of him, but he’s impossible to get rid of.’
    The RSPCA criticized several Just William stories for promoting cruelty to animals, such as one in which William and a friend bet on whose dog can kill the most rats in certain amount of time.
    The story ‘William and the Nasties,’ in which William suspects a Jewish shopkeeper of dishonesty and forms a mob to run him out of town, was dropped from reprints of her works after the mid-1980s.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She gave up teaching to write full time after her right leg was paralyzed by polio (1923).
    A critic noted, ‘It is virtually impossible to find someone in England between the ages of ten and ninety who has not read at least some of the William books.’ (2002)
    The Just William stories were adapted into British TV series five times (1956, 1962-63, 1976-77, 1994-95, 2010).
    ’Good Omens’ by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett began as a Just William parody with the working title ‘William the Antichrist.’

Credit: C. Fishel


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    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying