David Walliams

[Navelgazers]

He's on the wall of my child's school as author of the month. I just do not see the appeal - as I see it he got into writing easily, already being a celebrity, and found success as he used the same illustrator as Roald Dahl - Quentin Blake.

There have been threads in the past about him, and now this
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/nov/10/david-walliams-recorded-derogatory-remarks-britains-got-talent-bgt-contestants

Basically, saying really offensive things about some BGT contestants, on mic. Of course they were going to be leaked.

Enid Blyton as a person wasn't great, as I'm sure were a lot of other authors. If your ds likes his books, don't discourage him.
Disclaimer: I don't know if his book content reflects his personality.

Despite not being a huge fan of celeb authors though, I do like Tom fletcher. The christmasaurus books are just magical.

There's a long history of successful children's authors being objectionable people. I wonder why?

Someone on a show specifically designed to ridicule and mock gets caught ridiculing. ITV are shithouses and Britains Got Talent is just Jeremy Kyle with a backing track. Anyone who is on there knows it and is cool with it. David Walliams just got caught saying the quiet bit out loud but the bitchy misogyny has always been on show.
Plus: Agree. His books are pure shite.
I wholeheartedly recommend the following children's authors:
Robin Stevens
Katherine Rundell
David Almond
Jonathan Stroud

Are they smug? I imagine them to be smug.

I don't know, good question. I'm a nice person and am unpublished :-)

I do think that some people as in any profession become successful by trampling on others.

My DS doesn't read him, no.

It's amusing you suggested Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton as though they weren't problematic.
You need to decide if you can separate the artist from the art. I'm wary of purity spirals and snobbery about books.

Robin Stevens is amazing, my 2 dds love her.
Always found David Walliams weird and creepy and also suspected he hates children. That awful world's worst children book, absolute shite, racist nonsense. And badly written to boot.

The books are DREADFUL. Especially the lists. It’s like the publisher said “David you need to put at least another 20 pages in this” so he wrote a few lists.

Happily, despite having a few, my kids really never got on with them and found them boring.

My youngest loved Jacqueline Wilson and before that Malory Towers and Enchanted Wood.

My eldest preferred fantasy so she liked Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and later on, Hunger games.

However the both loved the Hamish books by Danny Wallace which are excellent, The bolds series by Julian Clary and the David Baddiel books.

I also highly recommend the Nevermoor books by Jessica Townsend. They are fabulous for those that like Harry Potter

@Beanbagtrap I'm not sure about smug. I know what you mean though as I think he comes across as smug on tv!
I'd say they heavily borrowed their style from other sources and the middle one was quite tricky to keep up with if you have a child that reads at a snails pace but the love of Christmas is so strong in them that they're just a lush bedtime story.

I haven't heard whatever he said on BGT, but I always thought he seemed unpleasant. However, my children enjoyed his books when they were younger, and I think he's got some reluctant children into reading. I remember when I helped with reading at my children's school, the staff liked his books because their reading age is much lower than the themes dealt with, so they were good for older children who struggled with reading but wanted books more age-appropriate than Biff and Chip.

I don't really have much time for author criticisms, as long as the books are enjoyable for those who read them, and encourage reading skills and enjoyment. It's no different from people wanting to ban Enid Blyton when I was a child, or more recently JK Rowling for being transphobic. Although I disagree with that view of JKR, I think the response is not to argue or disprove the criticisms, it's to say that it doesn't matter what you think of an author's personal views, if their books are enjoyable, engrossing and make children want to read, then of course they should be encouraged.

Fantastic ideas, thank you!

Cannot abide the man, and it's one of the few authors I won't encourage the children to read.

My youngest, who was originally a reluctant reader, absolutely devours (still) the Tom Gates books by Liz Pichon.

I am reading the enchanted wood/faraway tree with my 8 year old at the moment and he loves it.

We have also been reading Michael Rosen stuff which he loves too.
I'm just reliving my childhood through him so I'm glad he's enjoying it

He's a disgusting human being.

He wasn't very nice either.

He tried to chat up my daughter when she was 17 ( and a young looking 17)
Very creepy

I thought Dad Walliams was the new Cilla Black by all account

That’s the difference isn’t it - Enid Blyton’s books have nice values so didn’t really reflect her character, whereas DW just seems a bit rubbish all round - books and character. He once encouraged people to use his books as loo roll in the pandemic which about sums it up.

Roald Dahl is a weird one - I used to love his books when I was a child, but looking back, they appealed because of the victim child vs vile adult setting which matched my lived reality, and then empowered child overthrows vile adult kind of ending, which gave me hope. I won’t read them to my child because he lives in a much more loving and collaborative environment and I don’t want to feed him the dysfunctional formula!

Plus agree with RD and EB there’s some racist stuff in there - they’re products of their time which shouldn’t be glorified now just because people loved the books as kids.

They are not good books, regardless of what kind of person he is. Although it does appear he's kind of an asshole, so not really a purity spiral situation?

Of everyone I have ever met in my life, many of them highly regarded actors, musicians etc, David Walliams is the most arrogant. He literally won't engage with people who he considers beneath him, unless there is something in it for him. He is truly a horrible man.

I don’t know much about him outside what he writes, but the book we have here is very bad

Blyton's books have terrible values! Especially the boarding school ones. So much bullying that's supposed to be entirely deserved, so many double standards, so much judging on appearance.

Favourite author as a child?
Nina Bawden.
As far as I know, she lived a blameless life as well. If she didn't, please don't tell me!
I used to save my pocket money to buy her books from the Scholastic Book Club.

I was just about to wrote this! His books are beautifully written and I would definitely recommend him!