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

[myohmywhatawonderfulday]

I have read a lot of David Walliams books to my children before bed.
Gangsta Granny, Ratburger, Mr Stink, The Midnight Gang..but there is something off about The Worlds’s Worst Children (read vol 1 and 2). They don’t have the same ‘narrator voice’ nor use of vocabulary. They just don’t sound like him, I don’t think.

I have looked for some reference to who could have written them but they are marketed as if it’s him.

Does anyone else think that?

I think there’s absolutely no reason to think he doesn’t write them, and I’m not quite sure why so many people insist that they must be ghost written. They’re not fabulously well written, they trade in the sort of broad stereotypes you’d expect from his other work, they’re churned out at an entirely believable rate, he’s a professional writer, albeit of scripts, and nobody has unearthed any secret ghost writers - which would be pretty newsworthy.

I don't know why anyone would be a ghost writer when they could just write their own books

I used to follow the blog of a mid-list urban fantasy writer. Like many other such authors her publisher didn't offer her another contact went it was clear the market had moved on from urban fantasy. She didn't want to go back to her old job as she loved writing so now she is a full-time ghostwriter. Other authors chose to self-publish on amazon etc, she chose ghostwriting as she had a family to support and needed a guaranteed income. She once posted that her only regret was that she couldn't tell people anymore when one of her books made the lists (USA Today/NY Times)

I find his books really mean actually, and have never bought them form my DD.

On the time front, the David Walliams books are probably 50,000 at most (that’s a very short adult novel) which would be 500 words a day for 100 days. Even with editing and rewrites it’s very doable to write two of those a year if you don’t have a challenging day job, and workaholics without outside commitments could do much more.

hmmm he went to school near us and has a library dedicated/sponsored by him as apparently he was very good at English so I am not that sceptical tbh. Also went to Bristol Uni so clearly not educationally challenged.

Probably has a very good editor rather than a ghost writer.

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

He writes them himself. A lot of celebs don't but he does. He wrote his tv scripts too don't forget. Very different I know, but he is a writer and a performer, not a celebrity who has just become a writer because they're famous.

I’ve written 100k words in about 12 weeks. He certainly can write two short novels in a year however he’s an arrogant asshole and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it without extreme copy editing at the very least. He’s unbearable though so maybe he is ‘all that’ and I’m underestimating him.

I read a thread on twitter about this a while back. Apparently common knowledge in the publishing industry that he uses ghosts.

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.

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

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.

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.

Who ever uses ghost writers, what frauds they are.

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.