[West Ender]

I read all the William books, as a child, and used to listen to it on the radio on Saturday mornings when I was about 5. I thought, at the time, Violet Elizabeth was called Violent Elizabeth.

My children read all the books, too, and loved them. It amuses me now to think how the stories started off with him living in a large house with a cook, maid and gardener but in the last books he lived in an average semi. He also managed to remain 11 years old from the 1920s, when his sister wore cloche hats and shingled hair, throughout WW2 and through to the 50s and Russian spies.

In the last few years Martin Jarvis has read William stories on Radio 4 and they're still brilliant.