The importance of Richmal Crompton that captivated Sir Terry Pratchett when first reading William The Antichrist- or as we know it today, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.
Sir Terry Pratchett was once told by a school teacher that he would never amount to anything. That was one of his childhood memories- rotten humanity limiting knowledge. But that wasn’t the only memory of course. Throughout his life, words and stories always kept him company and one of those emblematic authors whose words cut deep through the bleakness and that made an impact was Richmal Crompton. Better known for writing the “Just William” books.
An impact so strong that this was Sir Terry in 2014 dressed as William Brown from Richmal Crompton’s “Just William” for a series of portraits done for an exhibition inside The Story Museum.
An exhibition where 26 authors dressed up as their favorite literary characters because in STP’s words “why not”. Photography by Cambridge Jones.
Now, if you know anything about the origins of Good Omens, you’ll know that it had been previously named William the Antichrist- a draft/ file that was around 5282 words long in 1985, exploring a scenario in which Richmal Crompton's William Brown had somehow become the Antichrist. And that called STP’s attention so much that he even offered to buy it off.
Said draft, had it not been sent to Sir Terry and had he not loved it enough to save it in his computer, would have been lost forever since the original file was lost in a computer crash. Sir Terry auto-denominated himself “The Keeper of the Disk”.
My Tweet liked by Rhianna Pratchett: Forever grateful about the fact that Sir Terry loved the draft of William the Antichrist so much because of (inferably) his love for Just William, that, had he not saved the file in his computer when he first received it, Good Omens would have never happened (the original file had been lost in a computer crash).
The original draft had things like these: (my slides I made from owning William The Antichrist).
You can only imagine why he would have been so enthralled by it. This is what Sir Terry had to say when he wrote Good Omens afterwards:
"I seldom let Neil touch any of the bits involving Adam Young himself." (Locus Mag)
And: Initially, I did most of Adam and the Them and Neil did most of the Four Horsemen, and everything else kind of got done by whoever -- by the end, large sections were being done by a composite creature called Terryandneil, whoever was actually hitting the keys. By agreement, I am allowed to say that Agnes Nutter, her life and death, was completely and utterly mine. And Neil proudly claims responsibility for the maggots. Neil's had a major influence on the opening scenes, me on the ending. In the end, it was this book done by two guys, who shared the money equally and did it for fun and wouldn't do it again for a big clock."
"Yes, the maggot reversal was by me, with a gun to Neil's head (although he understood the reasons, it's just that he likes maggots). There couldn't be blood on Adam's hands, even blood spilled by third parties. No-one should die because he was alive." (Terry Pratchett: HisWorld)
It is obvious to see that the love for William Brown is what took him in and something he never let go throughout.
Even though they had to change the name from William to Adam, the Just William spirit was never far away. As you can guess, the Them are just The Outlaws from the Just William books- renamed and regendered.
Various Good Omens sentences are constructed in a way Richmal Crompton would have written them.
The sentence when Anathema tells Adam that she has lost the Book, and he tells her that he has written a book about a pirate who became a famous detective and it is 8 pages long... that's "a William sentence" or in this case an Adam one.
Sir Terry liked Richmal Crompton so much because she wrote stories that ended up reaching a major kids audience, but that at the end of the day, were stories written for adults. The vocabulary was advanced, the subjects were deep, and she never made you feel like a lost child nevertheless.
Here is a snippet of STP talking about her from that same Story Museum broadcast in BBC Radio 4:
Good Omens would have never been shaped into what it is today if STP had not taken those initial 5282 words and completely rewritten them into 10,000. Bringing the irony and humour that he learned through Crompton and that metamorphosed into something completely Pratchett.
If you would like to read more about the general origins, I compiled all of the info here. (Yes everything “underlined” is because it will lead you to the source).
