Just William , published in 1922, was the first of a long series of well-loved books about William Brown, an eleven-year old English schoolboy, written by Richmal Crompton . William is continually scruffy and disreputable, and has a talent for getting into trouble and becoming involved in various inventive plots and scrapes, to the exasperation of his long-suffering parents and older siblings.

Crompton continued to write stories about the amusing adventures and mishaps of William Brown right up until her death in 1969. Some 39 book collections of stories about William were eventually published, entertaining several generations of children. Despite this, Crompton felt her real work was in writing novels for adults, of which she wrote some 41—most now forgotten and out of print.