I think you will find that William drank 'liquorice' water. You can
read Richmal Crompton's own recipe at

http://www.manuscripts.co.uk/stock/8030.HTM


On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:00:26 +0100, " Colin Lamond"
> wrote:

>
>"jonathan.west1" > wrote in message
>news:FIfzc.32$e%.6@newsfe2-win...
>> Richmal Crompton's William keeps drinking Licorice Water.
>>
>> How is this made, anyone? Do we use the root, or is it the proprietary
>sweet
>> merely boiled up.
>
>
>I always thought it was neither, or at least not the kind of sweet you might
>be thinking of, rather a processed form of the root.
>
>My uncle told me about the time when he was he lad (about the the time of
>WW2): the children used to fake having sore stomachs because then they would
>be given liquorice to make sugerelly water (liquorice water) to sooth their
>pains. They way he told it, it was the only way they could get anything
>approaching sweets during rationing. I'm pretty sure the doctor was in on it
>too:-)
>
>Anyway, what he described (IIRC) was more like a thick black lump you could
>chew at for a whole day.
>
>Colin L
>