The ''William''
series of books by Richmal Crompton is surely one of the most delightful, funny and most important, ''Real''
kind of literature about
children. In these pages, she writes about an eleven year old boy William, living in the era around the 1930s and 1940, which is the period when she herself lived. It was an innocent age of no computers, no television, but plenty of healthy food to be eaten by kids after running and playing on the ample space available in form of playgrounds and fields. It was also a time when families had three to four children, giving each other company.
William with his friends and his mongrel dog, Jumble, embark on adventures which every eleven year old indulges in. No fancy language or locales here, just plain and simple life. This itself, along with Crompton''s flair for using dry humour whenever required, makes the William
series hilarious as well as poignant, for it reminds every mother of her naughty boy.