To think that David Walliams hasn’t written all his books?

He is a writer, so not sure why you think he wouldn't write his stuff tbh.

No, I mean he is involved editorially... perhaps that answers your questions...

Merry in that case I suggest you sack your editors.

i think somebody with a double first from Cambridge in English is more qualified to be an author than somebody with a degree in drama, even one from a top university like Bristol.

What a bizarre thing to say.

Nothing 'qualifies' you to be an author expect talent.

An undergrad degree in English lit is not preparation to be a writer. Literary Criticism is another discipline entirely.

Haven't rtft but yes. He does write his books and has a very involved editorial hand also.

David is that you? If so say something only you would know.

@BirthdayCakes, neither do I. There's something incredibly creepy about him.

yes, of course, absolutely. But they are statistically more likely to be able to write a book / not need a ghost writer than, say, Katie Price or somebody that left school at 16.

Haven't rtft but yes. He does write his books and has a very involved editorial hand also.

I think somebody with a double first from Cambridge in English is more qualified to be an author than somebody with a degree in drama, even one from a top university like Bristol.

David Baddiel was, like Walliams, a writer-performer. He wrote four well-recieved novels for adults before moving into the lucrative world of children’s fiction. You can hardly say that adult and children’s fiction are not transferable skill sets: thousands of writers from Dickens to Milne to Lewis to Rushdie to Rowling have written both.

What Jen said.

They are kid's books, not profound literature. My dyslexic book hating DS loves them. And for that, I will put up with a lot.

Me and dd read gangsta granny together on the back of the tv programme and I found it not too bad.We’re reading the ice monster now and my goodness I’m finding it hard work,just a bit boring and difficult to read out loud.

He has a drama degree from Bristol so a high change of an English A level.

A proportion of my degree is English Literature, I spent a year studying Children's literature. I could no more write a novel than I could fly to the moon - having studied English Literature/English A level doesn't mean you are any good at creative writing. I write poetry and write well at non-fiction but I doubt I could write a decent children's novel. I don't think DW can either.

Why on earth wouldn’t he have written them? He has a drama degree from Bristol so a high change of an English A level. He wrote umpteen TV scripts which whether you like them or not are very much in the vein of his novels. He strikes me as the kind of person who, once he starts something just gets his head down and gets on with it until it’s done.

English literature degrees are about literary criticism, not creative writing. Being good at one doesn't make you good at the other.

From what I remember for example David Baddiel's putative PhD was in Victorian erotica. Not the obvious route into children's books.

I think it is hard to ghost-write comedy fiction - it's different if it's a celeb autobiography

That makes no sense at all, it's as easy for a ghost writer to write comedy fiction as it is for a non-ghost writer to write comedy fiction. From what I've seen of DW's books it wouldn't be that much of a challenge to churn one out, especially if you are good at English.

As for his degree, it's all vocational and not exam based so it's not a demanding academic degree - it's possible to be great at acting without being academically brilliant.

His writing isn't a style that indicates an exceptional ability at English; it looks like a late primary school child has been over-enthusiastic with the thesaurus and has been overusing the latest technique they have been taught.

Not all 'celebs' are 'just' celebs.

The ones that write all their own material are already writers.

Plenty of authors have been involved with turning their work into scrips. Why can't others do the reverse?

And David Baddiel has a double first in English from Cambridge. That's some sort of qualification, surely?

I have no problem believing he has written them. They are all quite similar - soulless, poorly written and clichéd, with an underlying meanness than cannot be concealed. He overuses the thesaurus to try to give the impression of wide vocabulary. Any ghost writer, indeed many teenagers or even an algorithm could easily write better.

He has major 'help' or at least he had with the last 3 books.

Who ever uses ghost writers, what frauds they are.

Are those 2 books among the most recent? Could explain the lack of quality if they've been rushed out at a higher rate per year.

Have a friend writes fiction they're a particular genre, all the same or similar formula, & seems to publish (online only, not in print) half a dozen a year. They're not well edited as I can always find errors in the plot, like in one chapter the chemist is between the bakers and the bank and in the next it's between an estate agent and the newsagent.

apparently he was very good at English so I am not that sceptical

Having read one under sufferance if he was good at English I am much more sceptical.

But I don't think 2 a year is a lot if he doesn't bother with research or edit it himself. I've managed 50k words in a month twice (NaNoWriMo- write 50k words in a month) along side having 3 children to distract me and a job.

I just wanted to state that I don't like him one little bit.

If you read the books of prolific writers they do often seem quite different. Take Alexander McCall Smith who is well known for writing at quite a rate, he writes the No 1 ladies Detective series and several other series and stand alone novels. They all seem quite different in tone and while they have certain similarities you could easily think different people had written some of them.