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.
Links To Peel[]
Peel mentioned on It Makes Me Laugh that he was forbidden to read the Just William Stories at Shrewsbury School. In an interview with Third Way magazine, published in May 2000 [1], he revealed that his wife Sheila, used to read him the Just William stories in bed before going to sleep. He was so much of a fan of the stories that he named his first child, William Ravenscroft, after the schoolboy character.
Occasionally, when Peel wanted his audience to share his enthusiasm for a record, session or artist, he would say that if they didn't, "I'll scream and I'll scream till I'm sick", which was a quote from Just WIlliam. It was the catch-phrase of Violet Elizabeth Bott, described by Wikipedia as the "lisping spoiled daughter of the local nouveau riche millionaire" and one of the few girl characters in the Just William stories (in the books it was written "I'll thcream and thcream 'till I'm thick"). The DJ is not known to have ever carried out this threat.