Richmal Crompton was born in 1890 and is best known for her thirty-eight books featuring William Brown, which were published between 1922 and 1970. Born in Lancashire, Crompton won a scholarship to Royal Holloway in London, where she trained as a schoolteacher, graduating in 1914, before turning to writing full-time in 1923. Alongside the William novels, Crompton wrote forty-one novels for adults, as well as nine collections of short stories. She died in 1969.