Norman, the recipient of this brightly coloured, dustjacketed edition of William the Pirate has played his own Williamesque prank. He has scrawled his address within the whole universe on the front free endpaper: x Lake, Wednington, Bullford, England, Earth, World, More Space, Hemisphere, Evermore, Space. ( )

I read the William books as a child, and despite being an obnoxiously well behaved child, I still wanted to think of myself as an "Outlaw".

I would recommend them to anyone of such an age. I think they are genuinely improving. Certainly my memory of William, as of the Swallows and Amazons, provides a well buried counter to my natural inclination towards the effete.

William also provides a good lesson in free will, independent spirit and free thought. Which cannot hurt. (Unless you wanted to make an extreme reading of the William stories as a prop to the capitalist establishment...)

The dustjacket, a little damaged especially on the spine, shows William pushing a pram.