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.

Yeah put in recycling. Idt charity shops will take them. Well they won't be able to sell them anyway.

Around 30K new copies of his books were sold in January, so I doubt charity shops would have much trouble selling them.

'Good' Writer: 'Awful' Human - arguably Orwell, Dickens, Hemingway, Salinger and Rosseau. Just some examples - invites the question how great/talented do they have to be for their personal lives to be discounted? The nuance in one writer but not another?

George Orwell: Terrific Writer, Terrible Husband

Charles Dickens was cruel to his wife, hated his mother and had an affair, writes A.N. WILSON | Daily Mail Online

Opinion | Salinger and the Exploitation of Young Women - The New York Times

Ernest Hemingway was a brilliant writer and a terrible person. Discuss. - America Magazine

Rousseau Practiced Serial Child Abandonment – Pilgrim Thoughts of Andy Rayner

Perhaps if you had read them to your children you would have understood why they are so popular. Can you seriously claim that, for instance, Matilda is shjit? I've never come across a child who didn't love it.

I also newly discovered Roald Dahl had an eleven year affair.

I never read them to my children because I didn’t enjoy them as a child. I have a different opinion than yours.

That's a ridiculous statement. The vast majority of authors are nothing like Walliams, Dahl or Dickens (who was disgusting towards his wife).

One of my kids adored RD. The other one who is less able didn't but absolutely enjoyed the films.

I'd hate to think the one who didn't get them would dismiss them entirely from their own future kid's library.

Find his address and send them to him one by one without a stamp

My kids absolutely adored DW books when they were young ... they both hated reading and after watching Mr Stink and Gangsta Granny they started reading all his books. Both now love reading,,,, I gave our old ones to my local primary school and they were happy to have them..... I have absolutely no idea what he has or has been accused of doing so I can't make a judgement until I have googled!!

I'm not a fan of DW at all but my kid who isn't academic really enjoyed them and the were among the first books DC ever finished.
To develop a love of reading, it doesn't matter what the child is reading. Its the act of reading itself that matters.

I could read Roald Dahl a million times over, he’s a genius story teller and it’s a pleasure to read his words. My children laughing over his books is the best sound. Imagine when his books were published, and parents found something so magical to read to their children?

Walliams is tripe. There’s no comparison. Even if he was a saint. It’s tripe.

Not being found guilty of something and being innocent of it aren't the same thing. That's exactly why juries state "not guilty" rather than innocent.

I gave all of ours to the local animal sanctuary fundraising shop.
I figured someone would buy them and raise money for the donkeys.
I too am cross that DS's primary school pushed these books. I'm even more cross that I bought them for him!
It felt great to hand the whole lot over. Thank God I won't have them in my home anymore.

I love David Williams. He's so funny

They’re ghost written anyway, it’s not even his own work and he’s an awful man to boot so I’d have no hard feelings about recycling them myself.

So, not buying David Walliams books is unreasonable, just less so than throwing existing ones away?

I've never bought a David Walliams book because I was already grown up when he started churning them out. Am I being unreasonable?

Yes. I can separate the work from the author you see. My kids have all loved these books and the books themselves (so far as I can see) contain no hint of his bigotry. This contradiction was explored brilliantly in the recent play Giant, (written by a Jewish playwright). I’d highly recommend it.

I kinda hate to criticise George Orwell too much, on MN more than anywhere. He may not have been a perfect human being (who is?), but his prescience on the power of language, the concept of Newspeak, well, it rings like a bell, doesn't it? If he was around today, I think we all know where he'd stand. Putting someone was prepared to put his life on the line for what he believed in in the same category as a wanker like Walliams seems deeply unfair.

I bought one in a charity shop last year and dd loved it. I’d 100% buy more if I saw them there again.

I don’t condone what he’s alleged to have done in any way, but he’s already earned all his money from the book being sold in the first place, me buying it in a charity shop isn’t going to positively (or negatively) affect him in any way. If dd likes his books and is happy to keep reading them then I’m happy to keep buying them.

I think It’s wasteful and quite frankly bizarre that so many posters here feel so strongly that his books should be thrown away. You all know they’re not instruction manuals detailing how (not) to behave right? Seems like there are an awful lot of virtue signalers out today!

You are 100% wrong. Being found not guilty in a court of law means not guilty. Having not been charged with anything means you are innocent.

I would tip out the pages , tear them up a bit and gradually add them to your compost bin. Compost worms can’t read so won’t be affected by the misogyny, poor plotting and general miasma of nastiness emanating from Walliams’ writing.

Enid blyton wasn’t very nice either. Calm down everyone. The books won’t damage the children.
and btw what had he been charged with? I mean I know he’s a dick but just saying…

@Saffronyy I never rated Dahl either. There are quite a few modern children's authors that I'm not fond of either Jacqueline Wilson being one of them

Both of them make fun of people who are different, in Dahl's defence he was a brilliant story teller and wrote decades ago when nobody was really thinking this way, that Walliams is doing it in the last decade, plus his behaviour puts him in a very different place. We had a book clear out and loads went to school, including Walliams, I kind of hope school binned them, but there were plenty of good ones.

And not just a Children's Author, but wrote thrillers, and screenplays, on top of which he was a WW2 fighter ace, and after being invalided out of that an intelligence officer.

So you could say he had a bit more substance than Walliams