Richmal Crompton

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Richmal Crompton Lamburn
Richmal Crompton Lamburn, pictured on the cover of her biography, along with her famous creation, William Brown
Richmal Crompton Lamburn, pictured on the cover of her biography, along with her famous creation, William Brown
Born(1890-11-15)15 November 1890
Bury, Lancashire, England
Died11 January 1969(1969-01-11) (aged 78)
Chislehurst, London Borough of Bromley
Pen nameRichmal Crompton
OccupationTeacher, novelist, short story writer
NationalityEnglish
Period1919 to 1969
GenreChildren's literature, novels, short stories
Notable worksJust William

Richmal Crompton Lamburn (15 November 1890 – 11 January 1969) was a British writer, most famous for her Just William humorous short stories and books.

Life

Richmal Crompton Lamburn was born in Bury, Lancashire, the second child of the Rev. Edward John Sewell Lamburn (Classics teacher at the Bury Grammar School) and his wife Clara (née Crompton). Her brother, John Battersby Crompton Lamburn, also became a writer, remembered under the name John Lambourne for his fantasy novel The Kingdom That Was (1931) and under the name "John Crompton" for his books on natural history.

Richmal Crompton attended St. Elphin's boarding school for the daughters of the clergy. It was originally based in Warrington (Lancashire); she later moved with the school to a new location near Matlock, Derbyshire in 1904. In order to further her chosen career as a schoolteacher, she won a scholarship to the Royal Holloway College in London. Crompton graduated in 1914 with a BA Honours degree in Classics (II class). She also took part in the Women's Suffrage movement at the time. In 1914, she returned to St Elphin’s as a Classics mistress and later, at age 27, moved to Bromley High School in south-east London where she began her writing in earnest. Cadogan shows that she was an excellent and committed teacher at both schools. Having contracted poliomyelitis, she was left without the use of her right leg in 1923. She gave up her teaching career and began to write full-time. Later in her forties, she suffered from cancer and had a mastectomy.

She never married and had no children although she was aunt and great-aunt to other members of her family. Her William stories and her other literature were extremely successful and, three years after she retired from teaching, Richmal was able to afford to have a house (The Glebe) built in Bromley Common for herself and her mother, Clara. In spite of her disabilities, during the Second World War she did voluntary work in the Fire Service. She died in 1969 at her home in Chislehurst, London Borough of Bromley. She is also the great aunt to actor Jonathan Massey.

Work

Crompton's best known books are the William stories, about a mischievous 11-year-old schoolboy and his band of friends, known as the Outlaws. Her first short story featuring William to be published was "Rice Mould", published in Home Magazine in 1919. (She had written "The Outlaws" in 1917, but it was not published until later.) In 1922, the first collection, entitled Just William, was published. She wrote 38 other William books throughout her life. The last, William the Lawless, was published posthumously in 1970. The William books sold over twelve million copies in the United Kingdom alone.[1] They have been adapted for films, stage-plays, and BBC radio and television series. Illustrations by Thomas Henry contributed to their success. The now more or less universally applied generic title "Just William" started to appear in the 1970s, following the 1976 BBC TV version which brought the stories far more widely into popular culture.

Crompton saw her real work as writing adult fiction. Starting with The Innermost Room (1923), she wrote 41 novels for adults and published nine collections of short-stories. Their focus was generally Edwardian middle-class life; after the Second World War, such literature had an increasingly limited appeal.

Even William was originally created for a grown-up audience, as she saw Just William as a potboiler (Cadogan, 1993). She was pleased by its success, but seemed frustrated that her other novels and short stories did not receive the same recognition. Her first published tale was published in The Girls’ Own Paper in 1918, concerning a little boy named Thomas, a forerunner of William who reacts against authority. Crompton tried several times to reformulate William for other audiences. Jimmy (1949) was aimed at younger children, and Enter - Patricia (1927) at girls. Crompton wrote two more Jimmy books, but no more Patricia, and neither was as successful as William.

According to the actor John Teed, whose family lived next door to Crompton, the model for William was Crompton's 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."

Crompton's fiction centres around family and social life, dwelling on the constraints that they place on individuals while also nurturing them. This is best seen in her depiction of children as puzzled onlookers of society's ways. Nevertheless, the children, particularly William and his Outlaws, almost always emerge triumphant.

The William books have been translated into nine languages and have been sold all over the world.

List of published works

The publication dates are for the UK.

Just William Novels

Just William Plays

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

William-like books

Others

Legacy

Richmal Crompton's archives are held at Roehampton University, London.

References

  • Mary Cadogan (1993). The Woman Behind William: A Life of Richmal Crompton. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-60038-X.
  • Ian Ousby (1994). The Wordsworth Companion to Literature in English. Wordsworth Editions Ltd. ISBN 1-85326-336-2.
  • Manchester Authors, Writers and Poets Page at the Papillon Graphics' Virtual Encyclopaedia of Greater Manchester.
  • Biography at Just William website.
  • Biography at the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site.
  1. ^ Greenway, Betty (January). "William Forever: Richmal Crompton's Unusual Achievement" (– Scholar search). The Lion and the Unicorn. 26 (1): 98–111. doi:10.1353/uni.2002.0004. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); External link in |format= (help) [dead link]

External links

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