She also wrote: novels about the lives of women (including Millicent Dorrington), in common with other women writers of the period stories about a group of people at a particular moment in their lives who are on holiday (such as Chedsy Place), from the same family (try Old Man’s Birthday), live in the same village or on the same housing estate some comic novels (e.g. She is best known for writing family sagas and she wrote several, including Family Roundabout.

Another issue is that Crompton wrote forty novels and they are most definitely not all the same. How can I recommend them? Well, quite a number are still out of print, so although I will write about them in my biography, I will not mention them now. She wrote nine other non-William short story collections, as well as three Jimmy books about a younger boy. You may enjoy it more if you think of it as a mix of gothic horror stories and stories based on folktales or myths. Mist is her only published collection of ghost stories. What would be a good novel to start with? Crompton’s early Wildings trilogy is worth reading too: The Wildings (1925), David Wilding (1926) and The Thorn Bush (1928). How do childhood experiences have an impact on their life?įamily Roundabout (1948), published by Persephone Books, is an enjoyable family saga in which two matriarchal figures dominate.

It is not a family saga and questions the nature of family life and what happens to these children as they grow up.

These children wonder whether they are loved at all. Some of her characters who are writers are very funny too, especially when they feature in the Just William stories.įrost at Morning (1950), published by Bello, is concerned with what happens to children when they have to spend time away from their parents for various reasons, such as divorce, when a parent remarries and when they are adopted. I certainly agree that she writes about frustrated women, neglected children and bad writers. I was delighted to see an article by Dr Sara Lodge on Richmal Crompton’s novels in the latest Persephone Biannually, published by Persephone Books.

William richmal crompton