Just William 11 – William the Bad

Richmal Crompton's William the Bad is the eleventh Just William book, a set of short stories for 8 year olds about a boy who is never, ever wrong.

What happens

It starts with a wet week. The Outlaws are stuck in a leaky barn with nothing to do, so Ginger reads them the book about King Arthur his aunt gave him for his birthday.

By the end of it William has decided they'll be knights and right wrongs for money. Sixpence for a small one, a shilling for a big one.

Henry points out that their packing case isn't round, so it becomes the Square Table instead. Douglas is made secretary because he spells best, and the sign he writes for the barn door says "Gnites of the square tabel. Rongs Wrighted 6d and 1/-. Pleese gnock."

Somebody does knock. A young man whose girl has stalked off to the river with a chap called Montmorency Perrivale.

What's funny about William is that his reasoning is completely watertight and completely wrong, and he delivers it with total confidence. Later on he decides he'll be a lecturer when he grows up, because lecturers get paid to talk for hours and anyone who argues gets thrown out by a policeman.

Henry opens a dictionary to test him. The first word is "epitome". William rules on the spot that it must be foreign, and when the definition turns out to be compendium, abridgment and summary, he takes that as proof.

You can hear him going, can't you? Nobody at home ever lets him finish a sentence, so he's had to learn to talk over people, and he's very pleased about how well it's coming along.

Each chapter is its own story with its own disaster, so it's a good one for dipping into. There's no need to remember anything from last time.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Worth knowing that this was written in the 1930s and it reads like it. The sentences are long, the jokes rely on grown-up words, and William's own speech is all dropped letters and apostrophes, "leckcherer", "diff'rent", "savidges". A confident 8 year old will get the rhythm quickly. A child who's still working hard at reading will probably want you alongside, and it makes a brilliant read-aloud because the voices do half the work.

You'll also hit the odd dated word and attitude, the sort of thing worth a quick word about rather than a warning.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, William's Happy Days comes next, and it opens with him broke at Christmas and needing to find money for presents.