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Just William by Richmal Crompton (spoilers included!)


frankie

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Hello everyone! This is the thread for the Group Read of the Just William -series. Well at least the first novel, let's see how we get along with it :D

 

You may discuss the book as you go along, so be warned, there will be spoilers! :smile2:

 

I wish you all enjoy the book!

 

 

 

Just William is the first book of children's short stories about the young school boy William Brown, written by Richmal Crompton, and published in 1922. The book was the first in the series of William Brown books which was the basis for numerous television series, films and radio adaptations. Just William is also sometimes used as a title for the series of books as a whole, and is also the name of various television, film and radio adaptations of the books. The William stories first appeared in Home magazine and Happy Mag.

Edited by frankie
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Thanks for starting the thread frankie :hug:
I'm loving it so far, William is like no other ... he's even liable to be smitten by girls/women .. which is quite unlike most other boys his age. This is the sort of stuff I expected Katy to do (in What Katy Did) only she didn't .. her pranks were far too tame. William causes mayhem .. it's brilliant. I love the slang he uses too.
I laughed my head off reading about Robert and his crush on Miss Cannon :D Also when William 'borrowed' Robert's bicycle :D .. loved the line 'I have said that William did not know where he was going. But Fate knew' :D :D :D
 
Such enjoyable stuff.
 
Bizarre fact though .. I remember that the actor who played Robert in the drama series was the same actor who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter's :D :D :D

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Glad to hear you've been enjoying William's shenanigans :lol: I'm still in the middle of my current read but I'll try and finish it today and then start reading William, and then I can have a proper dig around your thoughts and post mine :smile2: 

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I started reading this last night and I've been thoroughly enjoying the book :D It's been probably 2 decades since I read the book last, and I remember I enjoyed it but thought that William was a bit of a sh*t :blush: But now I'm thinking, he did usually mean well... Well, most of the time... Well, some of the time! He just had this tendency to get himself into trouble. 

 

Like poppyshake said, it's kind of unusual that William fancies girls... I'm not sure I can come up with another book about a boy his age who noticed women. 

 

I'd also forgotten about his brother and sister... Poor siblings :D 

 

 

I'm having dinner in a mo so won't be long, will talk in more detail later, but I'll say this much now: I'm reading a Finnish translation, and on one hand that's too bad because I'd love to be able to quote all the best bits!! But on the other hand, the translation is absolutely gorgeous and effortless! I love it :smile2:

 

Also, a fun fact: The boy is not called William in Finnish. It says in the blurb that now that William has come to Finland to stay, we have given him the name 'Villi Ami'. And how did that come about? We needed a boyish, prankish kind of name that slips nicely off the Finnish tongue. William - Viljami [which is an actual Finnish name and the equivalent of William] - Villi Ami. 

 

And what does this Villi Ami mean? 'Villi' means 'wild' in English :D And Ami is just Ami. A name. Not a Finnish name, but a name anyways. :D 

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I read this book in one day - it's my first experience of the Just William books... and I loved it!  :D

 

I watched the TV adaptation with Daniel Roche in 2010 (he's Ben in the TV show Outnumbered) and thought they were great.  It did mean I pictured him throughout my reading of the book, but that was okay! 

 

I loved the illustrations too.  The girl in this one (who William's brother was 'in love' with)  reminds me of my Granny, who would have been the right age in 1922 when this was first published...

 

IMG_20160125_151142_zps7i6f0vzs.jpg

 

I didn't realise that it was going to be unconnected short stories, but although I don't particularly like short stories I really, really enjoyed this. :)

 

I though it was odd that the chapter about how the family acquired Jumble appeared at the end when he'd already appeared.  Not that it mattered, but it just made the book feel rather disjointed.  Top stuff though. 

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Glad to hear you loved the book, Janet!! :smile2: I was worried when we started that this might not be to other people's liking but now I'm not that worried anymore :D 

 

Off to work soon so just a quick question: what's Jumble? I have the Finnish translation and I don't know who/what Jumble is supposed to be... I'm also now worried that I might not actually have the 'whole' book. How many pages where in your copies?

 

Also about the illustrations: I also love the ones in mine! By the same fellow. But I have a different picture than the one in Janet's book :o I'll show you guys later!! 

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Jumble is the family dog!  :D   He appears towards the end in my book.

 

My chapters are:

 

William Goes to the Pictures

William the Intruder

William Below Stairs

The Fall of the Idol

The Show

A Question of Grammar

William Joins the Band of Hope

The Outlaws

William and the White Satin

William's New Year's Day

The Best Laid Plans

"Jumble" (which starts on page 228 of my Kindle copy)  :)

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I read the book earlier in the week, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I vaguely remember there was a television series when I was little with Bonnie Langford in it, and although I don't remember it clearly, I know I didn't like it (particularly Bonnie's character, Violet, who hasn't appeared in the first book) and it always put me off reading the books.  However, the recent BBC adaptation was brilliant, so I'm glad we chose it to read together this year, as it was much more enjoyable than I'd been expecting.

 

I've reserved the next book from the library.  I'm not sure I want to read the *entire* series, but I'd like to read at least the next one. :)

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]

I've reserved the next book from the library.  I'm not sure I want to read the *entire* series, but I'd like to read at least the next one. :)

That's how I feel. :)

 

Book two is also available for Kindle on Project Gutenberg so I'll download it when I'm back on my laptop. :)

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Finally I have time to get to discussing the book!!

 

First of all I want to say that I'm really chuffed that everyone who's read the book so far or is reading it seems to be enjoying it a lot! :smile2: I was so worried beforehand, but seems like it's been a bit of a hit!

 

Also, I thought I'd read this first book before, but I went through my manual read books notebook and realized I've read another book, later on in the series. Meaning I haven't read this one before! But the one I read before is very much like this one in that I can recognize the characters and William, for what he is, of course =D Cool beans!! 

 

I'm loving it so far, William is like no other ... he's even liable to be smitten by girls/women .. which is quite unlike most other boys his age. This is the sort of stuff I expected Katy to do (in What Katy Did) only she didn't .. her pranks were far too tame. William causes mayhem .. it's brilliant. I love the slang he uses too.

 

I do wish I could read the English copy, because I'd like to know more about the slang, but the Finnish translation is ACE, so I'm not really that bothered :smile2: I love reading it in Finnish! Even though it will cause me some trouble what with the names of things being different... I suspect the dog of the family will be something more Finnish-like than Jumble. 

 

Ah, this reminds me... One of William's friends used a curse word that I really, really didn't expect in this sort of book =D It did say that his brother was an older boy (and thus he had learned it from him) or something like that. But it was a very blasphemous word =D

 

I laughed my head off reading about Robert and his crush on Miss Cannon Also when William 'borrowed' Robert's bicycle.. loved the line 'I have said that William did not know where he was going. But Fate knew'

 

How on earth did he fall in love with her so quickly and easily?!? =DI loved how she was more interested in William's shenanigans than poor old Robert, haha! 

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Bizarre fact though .. I remember that the actor who played Robert in the drama series was the same actor who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter's

 

:lol: I really want to watch the show!! 

 

I read this book in one day - it's my first experience of the Just William books... and I loved it!

 

So happy to hear this! :smile2:

 

I loved the illustrations too.  The girl in this one (who William's brother was 'in love' with)  reminds me of my Granny, who would have been the right age in 1922 when this was first published...

 

This is the illustration in my book, for the same part in the book: 

 

 

 

 

post-4458-0-23455200-1454700118_thumb.jpg

 

I didn't realise that it was going to be unconnected short stories, but although I don't particularly like short stories I really, really enjoyed this.

 I'm very glad you don't mind it being unconnected short stories :blush: phew! =D 

 

 

Jumble is the family dog!     He appears towards the end in my book.

Ah, thanks for that! I don't think he was mentioned in my copy...

 

 

My chapters are:

 

William Goes to the Pictures

William the Intruder

William Below Stairs

The Fall of the Idol

The Show

A Question of Grammar

William Joins the Band of Hope

The Outlaws

William and the White Satin

William's New Year's Day

The Best Laid Plans

"Jumble" (which starts on page 228 of my Kindle copy)

 

And thanks for going through the trouble of writing down the chapters for me!! It is as I feared: my book is only half of the book you guys have =(  I don't know why!! My book only has 131 pages, and 6 chapters. (I think they are the first six in the copies you guys have). I hate this!! Why would they chop up a book in half??????? 

 

I've reserved a copy for the 'second' Villi Ami book, meaning the one that's the last half in your books. I've also reserved the next two copies, which will probably be the book 2 in the English, original series. Can't wait to read more. 

 

I've just started the book so hopefully I'll be able to start joining in soon

 

Happy to have you join us! :smile2:

 

I read the book earlier in the week, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I vaguely remember there was a television series when I was little with Bonnie Langford in it, and although I don't remember it clearly, I know I didn't like it (particularly Bonnie's character, Violet, who hasn't appeared in the first book) and it always put me off reading the books.  However, the recent BBC adaptation was brilliant, so I'm glad we chose it to read together this year, as it was much more enjoyable than I'd been expecting.

 

So glad that you enjoyed the book! :smile2: So there's been an earlier TV series of the books? Interesting! I'm so thrilled that it was so much better than you were expecting :smile2:

 

 

I've reserved the next book from the library.  I'm not sure I want to read the *entire* series, but I'd like to read at least the next one. 

 

Nah, I don't expect to read the entire series, either. There are so many books! Also, I don't know if they are all translated into Finnish and if there are copies at the library... And I don't have the money to buy the books. 

 

That's how I feel.

 

Book two is also available for Kindle on Project Gutenberg so I'll download it when I'm back on my laptop.

 

Ah, having just written to chesil about not having the money to buy the later novels... It's good to know one can find them on PG! :D

Edited by frankie
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Jumble is the family dog!  :D   He appears towards the end in my book.

 

My chapters are:

 

William Goes to the Pictures

William the Intruder

William Below Stairs

The Fall of the Idol

The Show

A Question of Grammar

William Joins the Band of Hope

The Outlaws

William and the White Satin

William's New Year's Day

The Best Laid Plans

"Jumble" (which starts on page 228 of my Kindle copy)  :)

Those are my chapters too but in a slightly different order?! 

 

:wacko:

 

I'm halfway through - reading alongside a US history tome - and thoroughly enjoying so far!

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I'm very glad you don't mind it being unconnected short stories :blush: phew! =D

No need to say phew - I wouldn't have held you responsible even if I hadn't enjoyed the book!  :)

 

Ah, having just written to chesil about not having the money to buy the later novels... It's good to know one can find them on PG! :D

Only the first two - Just William and More William:)

 

And thanks for going through the trouble of writing down the chapters for me!! It is as I feared: my book is only half of the book you guys have =( I don't know why!! My book only has 131 pages, and 6 chapters. (I think they are the first six in the copies you guys have). I hate this!! Why would they chop up a book in half???????

No problem.  :) That's a pain about your books - I'm glad you can get hold of them all.

 

Wow - your illustration is quite different from mine, and yet from the same illustrator.    :o  I wonder why?! (Edit:  William's face isn't blacked out in your version.  Maybe Finland was more... enlightened about the portrayal of native Americans that the UK in the 1920s?)

 

Those are my chapters too but in a slightly different order?!

 

:wacko:

It may be because mine is from Project Gutenberg?  Although Wikipedia seems to have them in the same order, but maybe they got their info from that site too?

Edited by Janet
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I though it was odd that the chapter about how the family acquired Jumble appeared at the end when he'd already appeared.  Not that it mattered, but it just made the book feel rather disjointed.  Top stuff though.

This was exactly what I thought Janet .. I was confused (doesn't take a lot :lol:) I thought .. there is already a dog called Jumble .. isn't there? *flicks back to make sure he was called that and not Jimbo or something!* ... surely this isn't another one? The author can't have run out of dog names after just naming one! :D .. Feels like that chapter would have been better placed before we heard anything about Jumble.

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I forgot all about the TV adaptation with Bonnie in :lol: Oh God .. her character was as annoying as anything! Is she in the next lot of stories? (More William?) .. hope not .. but then they may have ramped up the annoyability of Violet's character for the sake of drama. I'm like Claire .. I'm not sure how far I'll go with the series but I really enjoyed this one so I'm going to get the next :) 

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