She was the Dorothy Parker of provincial England

From Niall Ferguson: By the Book, in the New York Times.

What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most?

I read a lot and quite systematically. Once I had identified an author I liked, I read everything by that person the library possessed. I vividly recall devouring the complete works of Arthur Conan Doyle and P. G. Wodehouse in this way. I have tried (and continue to try) as a father to impart my love of reading to my children, so the books I loved as a boy — Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” for example, or Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” — are books I have reread multiple times. The greatest works of literature benefit from being read aloud. A wonderful example are the “Just William” stories by Richmal Crompton, which deserve to be much better known in the United States. She was the Dorothy Parker of provincial England.

Wonderful to see such an overlap with an historian whom I greatly admire.