Not yet, Sam, but you can be assured I will own my first William book soon and join your discussion. This sounds wonderful. I loved my visits to the UK. It is also laughing at myself a bit. Half of me originated there!

Yep, maybe tomorrow (or later today; it's after midnight) I'll dive back into a William book... or an Asterix comic...

You're half English? Of my parents seven children I am one of three born in an independent Jamaica. I wish Jamaica was still a colony, but Jamaica's independence has been thrust upon it and the Jamaican government has managed to make a hash of a beautiful and gifted island...

Now how did I turn this into another lament about Jamaica? Ignore the previous; this is about William!

Not a William fan here, but you've peaked my interest. Do you have any favorite quotes for passages you could cite?

I don't remember the passage verbatim, so I'll look for it. But it had to do with William's attitude toward Science class...

I can't seem to find the story I'm looking for, so I'll give this extract instead: William took a fancy to Miss Tabitha Croft as soon as he saw her. She was small and inoffensive-looking. She didn't look the sort of person to write irate letters to William's parents. William was a great judge of character. He could tell at a glance who was likely to object to him, who was likely to ignore him, and who was likely definitely to encourage him. The last was a very rare class indeed. Most people belonged to the first class. But as he sat on the wall and watched Miss Tabitha Croft timidly and flutteringly superintending the unloading of her furniture at her little cottage gate, he came to the conclusion that she would be very inoffensive indeed. He also came to the conclusion that he was going to like her. William generally got on well with timid people. He was not timid himself. He was small and freckled and solemn and possessed of great tenacity of purpose for his eleven years." -From "The Fete - and Fortune" in William The Fourth by Richmal Crompton First published 1924, reprinted 1984, 1989 MacMillan Children's Books.

From "William Makes a Night of it" (sic) in the same book: "William had disliked Mr. Bennison from the moment he appeared, although Mr. Bennison treated him with the most conscientious kindness. William dislaked the way Mr. Bennison's hair grew and the way his ears grew and the way his teeth grew, and he disliked most of all his agreeable manner to William himself. he was not used to agreeable manners from adults, and he distrusted them. "Mr. Bennison was a bachelor and wrote books on the training of children. He believed that children should be led, not driven, that their little hearts should be won by kindness, that their innocent curiosity should always be promptly satisfied. He believed that children trailed clouds of glory. He knew very few. He certainly did not know William. "Mr. Bennison had met Ethel, William's sister, while she was staying with an aunt. Ethel possessed blue eyes and a riot of auburn hair of which William was ashamed. He considered that red hair was quite inconsistent with beauty. He found that most young men who met Ethel did not share that opinion. "Although Mr. Bennison had reached the mature age of forty without having found any passion to supersede his passion for educational theories, he experienced a distinct quickening of his middle-aged heart at the sight of Ethel with her forget-me-not eyes and copper locks. William never could understand what men "saw in" Ethel. William considered her interfering and bad-tempered and stingy, and everything that an ideal sister should not be. Yet there was no doubt that adult males "saw something" in her. "And William had the wisdom to make capital out of this distorted idea of beauty whenever he could."

Yup, My grandfather "graduated" from the Royal Horticultural College at Kew. Then he came to America on a job and married a local lady. He never went back. I did and enjoyed it so much! There is such dignity and civility (I kept away from the Brixtons and such). That is why I love cricket. It is a social occasion which has drinks breaks. I miss that part of the UK that I miss the most. The genteel nature inherent in every last person I met. I think I got all British Genes out of the mix. I'm sure not into German Engineering. I'm going to love William books!

Erm... I am sorry to say, but William does NOT have a genteel nature (as you have probably gathered from the extracts I posted...).