An example of 1940s 'peasant-art' style, the fabric shows prancing roundabout horses on a striped background; the faded pink is typical of the period (Mrs Fowler, one of the matriarchs, is especially fond of her 'faded cretonnes').

384p PERSEPHONE BOOKS ISBN 1903155134
PREFACE BY JULIET AYKROYD

Richmal Crompton created William, the pugnacious anti-hero of thirty books selling over 8 million copies in her lifetime; but their author once hinted that a 'Frankenstein monster' had ambushed her forty novels for adults.

We publish a 1948 novel about the life of two families during the inter-war years. Instead of seeing William at odds with adults, we are shown the matriarchs around whom their families spin; but whether they direct their children gently or forcefully, in the end they have to accept them as they are.

We see that families can both entrap and sustain; that parents and children must respect each other; and that happiness necessitates jumping or being pushed off the family roundabout.