Richmal Crompton Books in Order

The first William book introduces eleven-year-old William Brown at home, at school, and in full revolt against adult order. It is the starting point for one of children's fiction's great troublemakers.

This early collection sends William through Christmas disasters, household battles, and fresh attempts to do things his own way. The result is funny, brisk, and unmistakably William.

William returns with another fast, funny batch of schemes and misunderstandings. When he turns playwright and organizer, the trouble only grows.

William's school, family, and village all feel the force of his latest plans. He tackles each new problem with certainty and leaves a trail of confusion behind him.

William is still up to mischief, and the arrival of Violet Elizabeth Bott only makes life harder. Good intentions, blackmail, and chaos sit side by side here.

Victory is what William wants, whether the battleground is school, home, or the village green. He leads the Outlaws with complete assurance and mixed results.

In a quiet English village ruled by gossip, sharp-eyed Miss Mitcham makes life difficult for anyone who crosses her. Marcia Faversham and a new neighbor find themselves in the path of that malice.

Millicent grows from restless girl to the emotional center of a large family. It is a tender novel about duty, missed chances, and the strange weight of staying put.

William's attempts to help, reform, and prosper place him in exactly the sort of trouble he never expects. The fun lies in how hard he charges ahead anyway.

William sees himself as a fearless right-doer outside ordinary rules. That outlaw spirit makes perfect sense to him and none at all to the adults.

Newly home from school, Felicity Harborough throws herself into matchmaking, rescues, and cheerful misadventure. These linked stories give Crompton a lively older heroine with William-like confidence.

Crompton steps away from domestic comedy for eerie tales of hauntings, unease, and the supernatural. The stories are restrained, atmospheric, and often most unsettling in ordinary places.

William tries being good, which turns out to be more alarming than his usual bad behavior. His virtuous phase causes comic damage on every side.

Another strong collection of William Brown stories, this book sends him after fun, justice, and profit in equal measure. Each plan ends in fresh disorder.

When Naomi inherits a small country estate, she has to learn how to belong in village life while shaping a future of her own. A warm domestic novel about independence, work, and change.

William's honest wish to improve people and situations goes wrong in all the classic ways. The more certain he is of doing good, the worse things become.

Holidays, hobbies, and family life all become raw material for William's schemes. His idea of a happy day is rarely peaceful for anyone else.

William packs his days with clubs, feuds, rescue attempts, and new money-making ideas. It is a busy, funny collection that barely gives the adults time to recover.

Married off at seventeen, Hermione must grow into a life with a man who is not truly her match. The novel follows her through family strain, war, and hard-won understanding.

After his wife's death, Christopher Mainwaring is shaken by the hint that their long marriage may have hidden a painful secret. His search for the truth draws him deeper into the lives of his grown children.

William turns pirate in spirit if not in seaworthiness, raiding everyday life for adventure and loot. The result is a lively collection of bold plans and comic wreckage.

A family trip to the countryside brings freedom and adventure for the younger children, but the older ones begin to feel the first unsettling pull of adulthood. What looks like a simple break becomes a turning point.

Authority has never appealed to William, and here he resists it with special enthusiasm. His rebellion feels righteous to him and exhausting to everyone else.

When Celia Beaton opens a beloved family house to paying Christmas guests, nostalgia quickly gives way to comic friction. A crowded holiday setting exposes loyalties, romances, and old tensions.

William borrows the language and swagger of crime for his latest games and adventures. The Outlaws are delighted, while the grown-ups are anything but.

Four siblings grow from a sheltered Edwardian childhood into adulthood under the shadow of war, love, vanity, and disappointment. It is a big-hearted family saga with Jenifer quietly holding the center.

Mysteries are never safe when William Brown decides to solve them. He suspects plots everywhere and investigates with alarming energy.

After raising her younger siblings, Caroline has built a household around love, sacrifice, and control. Trouble starts when the people she shaped begin wanting lives of their own.

William tries kindness, reform, and matchmaking, only to prove that sweetness can be dangerous. His helpful impulses create some of the series' funniest tangles.

Ninety-five-year-old Matthew Rowston marks his birthday by gathering family, memories, and unresolved tensions. Beneath village calm lie secrets, hopes, and comic domestic trouble.

Vicky spends her life searching for the love she was denied as a child. Her story moves through family, romance, and social change with warmth and melancholy.

William heads for the stage and the spotlight with complete assurance in his own talent. Performances, publicity, and self-importance combine beautifully badly.

After Humphrey's affair ends his marriage to Viola, two connected families struggle to find a new balance. Divorce, grief, and small hopes ripple through a wide cast of characters.

William decides that firm leadership is what everyone around him needs. His efforts to organize people his own way lead to rebellion, outrage, and laughter.

A month-long family stay on the Cornish coast stirs old memories, new infatuations, and buried secrets. Behind the calm of seaside life, everyone is carrying private unrest.

Blackouts, rules, and wartime duty give William a whole new field for interference. He is eager to help, which is exactly why trouble follows.

Escaping a broken marriage, Lettice Helston drifts into country life and uncovers an old scandal. New friends and quiet acts of help begin reshaping her future.

The arrival of evacuees changes the balance of William's world at once. New rivals, new allies, and wartime confusion give him plenty to work with.

Stella Markham grows from admired child to dangerously self-absorbed woman, needing others to mirror back perfection. It is a sharp family novel about vanity, damage, and emotional hunger.

Determined to help the war effort, William throws himself into useful service. His patriotism is genuine, but his methods create problems nobody asked for.

After her home is bombed, Mrs Frensham moves in with family and watches wartime lives shift around her. A home-front novel about grief, resilience, and the strange closeness of crisis.

Wartime does not slow William down. He keeps inventing plans, causing rows, and somehow turning patriotic enthusiasm into comic havoc.

The Weatherley family moves from the Boer War to the edge of the Second World War, carrying scandal, loss, and hope through decades of change. It is a broad, absorbing family saga.

William takes on experts, quizzes, and clever people with complete faith in his own ideas. The result is a spirited clash between child confidence and adult certainty.

A widow turns her crumbling house into flats and discovers that too many stubborn people under one roof means instant friction. Family strain and clashing tenants keep the old place lively.

Young housemaid Tilly Pound enters a troubled household in 1892 and becomes an anchor as the years reshape the family. A sharp, class-aware saga about service, children, and survival.

The Ridley family sits at the center of village and domestic life, where private disappointments keep rubbing against public appearances. Crompton turns ordinary family strain into quiet, steady drama.

Two widowed matriarchs, one commanding and one easygoing, steer their families through the interwar years. Marriages, rivalries, and generational change bind the clans together.

In the only full-length William novel, William and the Outlaws try to get their older brothers married so they can claim the wedding presents. The scheme pulls them into a much bigger adventure.

Four neglected children form deep bonds at a vicarage, but adulthood does not erase the wounds they carry from childhood. It is one of Crompton's most poignant family novels.

William's confidence has never been in short supply, and here it drives him into bold new schemes. The Outlaws follow, and common sense is left some way behind.

Four people pushed to the edges of their old lives must work out how to belong again. Crompton treats family strain, displacement, and small hopes with a dry, humane touch.

William's sympathy for an outsider leads him into one of his messiest rescue efforts. Helping the tramp seems simple at first, until the adults get involved.

Moon-mad headlines inspire William's next campaign, and he treats space travel like an Outlaws project. His grand plans launch plenty of trouble before anything else lifts off.

Matty, lively even in her sixties, is reclaimed by long-lost respectable relations and proceeds to unsettle every household she enters. Her shameless interference may be exactly what the family needs.

William seizes on the excitement of the space age and spins it into a new adventure. Science, rumor, and mischief collide as the Outlaws charge in.

Television looks like the perfect stage for William's talents and opinions. His attempts to put on a show bring performance, publicity, and chaos together.

William sets out to discover and master the world around him, treating local ground like unknown territory. His explorations turn simple days into energetic disorder.

A hint of hidden treasure sends William and the Outlaws chasing profit, adventure, and glory. As always, their search causes far more upheaval than anyone expected.

Rumors of witchcraft and village superstition are irresistible to William Brown. Once he decides to investigate and help, ordinary gossip turns into full-scale confusion.

Pop music and sudden fame sweep into William's world, giving him fresh opportunities to interfere. His modern enthusiasms create as much trouble as his older-fashioned schemes.

William brings cowboy swagger and secret-hero theatrics into everyday English life. The Outlaws follow his lead, and the usual village routines do not stand a chance.

William decides ordinary standards are too small for him and launches into a new heroic phase. His latest attempts to improve the world leave family, friends, and neighbors reeling.

The final William collection finds William Brown still meddling, helping, and derailing adult plans with the Outlaws. Even in his last outing, his good intentions lead straight to comic chaos.

This comic collection gathers William's own writings and opinions, complete with wild spelling and total certainty. It lets readers hear his worldview in his own gloriously skewed voice.

Jimmy is a younger, smaller-scale comic hero whose bright ideas keep turning everyday life upside down. His good intentions and fast imagination make trouble feel almost inevitable.

Jimmy returns for more family muddles, small triumphs, and inventive blunders. The tone is warm, funny, and slightly gentler than the William books.

Festive William stories turn presents, visitors, winter plans, and family traditions into prime material for mischief. Christmas only makes his good intentions more dangerous.

These wartime stories drop William Brown into blackouts, rationing, and patriotic campaigns. The setting is serious, but William remains gloriously incapable of keeping calm or staying out of trouble.