William at War

Ten stories featuring the way in which Just William did his bit for the war effort. The hero's unwitting ability to destroy the pretensions and pomposities of the adult world while attempting to emulate the public-spirited endeavours of his elders, are depicted in hilariously straight-faced prose. The final story, in which the outlaws' attempts to mount a victory pageant result in a farce as vulgar as anything seen on this year's VE Day, is an almost prophetic masterpiece. The social values reflected in the stories are, of course, of their time, providing the well-guided young reader with the bonus of some richly embedded anthropological data on the curious habits and attitudes of a lost British tribe.