David Walliams in the bin

[carlitaclarita]

To throw all our David Walliams books out? I can’t even bear to take them to charity shops and I’m annoyed I even own them and annoyed they were so heavily pushed in schools.

Not for kids, but wasn’t Charles Dickens a shit to his wife?

And Emily Brontë punch her dog in the face?

Fair enough

DW’s books are all utter drivel and tripe; I’ve never bought any. Plenty far better children’s books out there, there’s just no need for kids to read such shite. And then the scandal.

I’ve missed what Roald Dahl did?

Exactly. If we start binning books because the authors weren’t nice people, we’ll have to ditch most of the literary canon. People who are eager to ‘cancel’ authors (Jesus, that word could come straight out of Orwell’s 1984) ought to remember that things we do today will be despised by future generations - eating meat, for example.

If we start binning books because of our moral judgement of the authors, eventually there'll be nothing left to read.

I saw a lot recently in our local charity shop, still up for sale for £2 or £3
i would either take them back to the charity or give them away, some kids will still enjoy reading them either way
not like he wrote them or even thought of the book ideas himself anyway

This.

Patronising rubbish. I hate it when children's authors think that if they throw in toilet humour they will be on the children's wavelength. They won't, they will see right through you.

Plus he is such a creep.

Being a raging antisemite isn't a flaw. It's a monstrous bigotry akin to Nazim.

Must admit I have never read RD again after I read his biography. Vile man.

Not being found guilty means not guilty, it does not mean innocent. A subtle but very important difference!

I wonder how DW has managed to sell so many books when pretty much every poster on here holds the moral high ground of never allowing their child to read one of his books?

I mean, he didn’t write them anyway. He just used them as a cover to be the hideous human everyone knew he was. I have never binned a book in my life, but anything he has touched deserves binning.

I'm sure future generations will have grown out of the current vegan nonsense and will relish their meat.

Wasn’t Roald Dahl Jewish himself?!

Definitely in recycling, and tear them up - don't sully the shelves of charity shops with them.

No. His parents were Norwegian Lutherans.

He was Christian. His family attended the Norwegian church in Cardiff.

I believe Dickens had ten kids with his wife then left her for an eighteen year old actress.

Emily Bronte punching her dog ‘Keeper’, in the face is a new one on me but there does seem to be a fair amount of evidence for it.

The only Road Dahl book I remember reading was Danny the champion of the world. I absolutely loved it, re-read it many times and it still holds a very special place in my heart.

I really struggle with Dahl's anti-Semitic views but general opinion is that his work didn't show his prejudices and I was totally unaware of it until recently.

I suppose a similar question is, will you continue to enjoy 'Good Omens' both the book and TV series, knowing it partly came from the mind of Neil Gaiman?

Hope it bit her.

Have you read them? Body shaming, misogynistic tripe. My son got a box set for his birthday one year. We read 2 and recycled the others. I wouldn't inflict them on someone else.

They are children heaven. Roald Dahl was the first big book we read to our eldest, the first live show he saw, the first movie he saw, the first chapter book read to them in childcare and the first chapter book he read to himself. And they were all different books.

Should we reject all art if the artist is flawed?
Gene Wilder didn't object to playing Willy Wonka despite Dahl's anti-semitism and he made the character iconic.

I'd bin Walliams' books even if he were as pure as the driven snow because they're rubbish.

If I had any, which I don't, I might be tempted to put them in envelopes addressed to DW and post them without stamps.