Novel: When William Came

Premise and setting
"When William Came" imagines Britain after a decisive German victory in Europe, with London adapted to life under German dominance. The novel projects a near future in which ordinary streets, institutions and social routines have been altered by the presence of a triumphant power, turning the familiar into something subtly foreign. Everyday details , signs, currency, school lessons, and the tone of public gatherings , become the means by which occupation reshapes national life.
Rather than staging dramatic battle scenes, the book concentrates on domestic landscapes: drawing rooms, clubs, shops and the corridors of local administration. Those quiet spaces serve as the stage for larger political and cultural shifts, so that the effects of conquest are understood as a steady erosion of autonomy and dignity rather than through single spectacular events. The atmosphere combines the uncanny with the banal, making the abnormal feel depressingly ordinary.

Main characters and perspective
The story is told through a British narrator who belongs to the comfortable middle- and upper-middle-class world that Saki knew well. Through his eyes the reader watches acquaintances, neighbors and public figures adjust to the new order, oscillating between petty accommodation and an old-fashioned stoicism. Interactions with German officials and with other Britons provide much of the novel's energy, as private prejudices and public postures are exposed.
Characters are sketched with satirical economy rather than deep psychological probing; they represent social types whose responses illuminate wider political themes. Scenes of family conversation, clubroom banter and small domestic humiliations carry the moral weight of the narrative, showing how ordinary people cope with loss of status, curtailed freedoms and the temptation to rationalize compromise.

Themes and tone
Satire and polemic run through the novel, mixing wit with unease. The work critiques complacency and the failures of prewar politics, suggesting that the real threat to Britain was not only a foreign army but self-satisfaction, disunity and misplaced priorities. Saki uses irony to expose how quickly national independence can be diluted when citizens fail to take collective responsibility.
The tone shifts between dry humor and grim warning. Saki delights in pointed observations about manners and social ritual even while he mourns the loss those rituals can no longer conceal. The book explores language, law, education and monarchy as arenas in which power is renegotiated, and it emphasizes how symbolic changes , a new currency, a compulsory salute, German lessons for children , can signal profound political transformation.

Legacy and reception
Published on the eve of the First World War, the novel joined a wider current of invasion literature and speculative writing that questioned the assumptions of national security. It stood out for its focus on domestic satire rather than military spectacle, and for its trenchant moral message about civic complacency. Contemporary readers found its scenario provocative; later critics have read it as both a product of its time and a cautionary tale about the fragility of liberal democracies.
Today the book is of interest to readers of alternate history, satire and prewar political fiction. Its imagined Britain under German sway offers a compact study of how everyday life can be politicized and how culture can be quietly subordinated to power. The work remains a striking example of speculative fiction that uses the small and familiar to illuminate great political changes.