To feel a bit ill about David Walliams?

[HelloYouTwo]

Apparently he’s made over £100m from his books.

There are so many better books out there than that pile of repetitive mildly racist, stereotype-laden junk that he peddles off the back of being a bit famous. I feel sorry for all the decent non-celeb authors out there.

News article if anyone interested:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/david-walliams-sitting-comfortably-in-100-million-book-club-gmp6bwm6b?shareToken=170904334320775f0850152088ce45a1

Laterthanyouthink yes that article sums it up perfectly!

The article doesn’t address the point that Walliams books have been strongly and consistently popular with their target market.

Are those of you who say you find him creepy sure you're not just being homophobic because he's more than a bit camp?

Quite sure, thank you.

"Camp" and "creepy" are not synonymous.

"Camp" and "creepy" are not synonymous.

Well said @SchadenfreudePersonified.

It's not his campness at all. It's that he seems to be wearing an oleaginous mask and it's impossible to work out what's beneath. He's constantly on full alert, demanding attention and being OTT in a way that makes me wonder what character traits he's hiding underneath.

Or millie hes just a performer. Thats what they do.

Its one thing saying his books arent to your taste. Its quite another to give him a full character assassination, insinuate hes a criminal and or hiding something.

What an utterly horrible, nasty and judgemental thread.

You don't have to read it Bollykecks

@Bollykecks I haven't insinuated he's a criminal. What an odd extrapolation. I have every right to have opinions and preferences about celebrities. He is an attention seeking character. He has attracted my attention and this is my reaction to his constant antics. All completely reasonable.

I'm happy if anyone in my class is reading but personally I don't like them. There's not enough imaginative language or vocabulary in them to make them enjoyable to read aloud; they are terrifically clunky in terms of sentence construction and flow ( leaving aside content.)

That said, my reluctant readers will read them because everyone else is, and parents buy them because they are in Tesco. So, I am glad to find, is Philip Pullman.

Any reading is good - as far as it goes. My problem comes with prising more able readers away from this style. It's easy, predictable, questions on AR are easy. I find decent graphic novels much more apt for my reluctants in class. Neil Gaiman has several novels graphicised. Once they are weaned off the ease of Walliams they often fly right past him. Potter too. Children enjoy complexity and depth. We underestimate them.

Another mum who's creep radar is set off. I had assumed it was just me, but clearly not. A lot of mum's have said the same on this thread. Does that mean something.

Also totally agree with not a patch on Roald Dahl, a significant unpleasant mean streak - have you read Demon Dentist?!? Very few characters with any redeeming features. Yes my ds reads them but would Much rather he read Wimpy Kid, Tom Gates, Tree house series...

Went right off him when it was revealed he hosts the creepy, sleazy President's Dinner.

Sadly my DD loves his books and people keep buying her them as presents. She also loves Harry Potter, Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson and (another celeb) Clare Balding's books.

Agree that David Walliams and Clare Balding, and probably others I don't know about, got an easy break into publishing when other, more talented writers, can't. It is notorious for being a 'who you know' industry and for being very unequal.

Can I just point out that a HUGE number of comedians/comedic actors cut their teeth on writing.

He doesn’t seem to like overweight working class women, does he?

millie i never said you had. Others did.

Does he always host the President's Dinner or has he just done so on one occasion? The club is a bastion of male entitlement but it's not the only one of its kind, I can't imagine Walliams groping waitresses or approving of it. I don't know of course.

From what I do know and see of him, I quite like David Walliams and don't resent the fact that he is now a reasonably successful author one bit. If his show biz status has given him a foothold on the literary ladder, good for him. If he is enthusiastic writing there would be no point in him not doing it just because he's well known. I haven't read any of his books because I don't have young children any more but I presume his books aren't the only ones children read. Mine used to read from quite a selection of authors and there were set books at school each term.

On a personal level I feel he's creepy.
DS is a reluctant reader but he DOES read Walliams' books. Whereas it's hard to get DS to read anything else. I don't know if DS would recognise DW.. from BGT, maybe?

So... I'm ok with the guy, on the whole.

I was eyeing up the latest book in Sainsbo today, actually.

He doesn't like weight full-stop. Fat people are lazy and greedy. Rich people are nasty. Women are constantly judged on their appearance. The books are full of unpleasant stereotypes and Walliams is writing in supposedly more enlightened times than Roald Dahl. He should know better. Yes, children love him. But they also love sweets, and as parents we ensure that our kids don't just eat confectionery.

I had no idea until just now that David Walliams the author was the same guy as David Walliams off of Little Britain!
Doh!
My kids have a couple of the short stories recently given out with Happy Meals (Worlds Naughtiest Children?). They didn't do anything for me but gotta say the kids found them hilarious.

I love the way he's made my children love reading.

If he's made money writing them, good on him.

On a side note, isn’t it strange how he makes so many of us feel uncountable although he’s never done anything wrong? It’s like that book ‘The Gift of Fear’.

ill never buy his books or any other being sold on the basis of it being written by a celebrity-not-famous-for-being-a-writer

My children have loved his books.

Dd has no idea who he is - his celebrity isn't perceptible to a 9 year old. She has read Roald Dahl, CS Lewis, most of Nosy Crow, loves Cogheart, annoyingly through her nan raced through Malory towers, will read Jacqueline Wilson time and time again along with Heidi, 5 children and it etc and is currently enjoying both wonder and the diary of Anne frank. She also liked Artemis fowl enough to finish them.

She loves DW - after a marathon read of the Buckingham palace one she finished it tonight. You can't make a child read if they don't want to - something in them appeals enough for her to turn down the alternatives for entertainment!

Children's books are often full of stereotypes so from that pov he is no different to Dr Seuss or even the dreaded Blyton.

Has anyone’s kids read David Baddiel’s kids’ books? They seem quite popular and more positive than Walliams’ books.

ill never buy his books or any other being sold on the basis of it being written by a celebrity-not-famous-for-being-a-writer

I find this a bizarre blanket rule.

Do you believe it’s impossible for people to be talented in two different spheres?