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.

Quite aside of what he is alleged to have done, I was always quite uncomfortable with the depiction of Raj (the stingy newsagent). This humour seemed a throwback to little Britain era stereotypes.

*aside from

I sold all of ours on FB Marketplace a few years ago when DC grew out of them. 😃

I I have never liked the vile weasel. We were given one of his books, it was read v v quickly and then put in the recycling.

I loved James and the Giant Peach as a child.
I never forget the pleasure reading it gave me - I'd never read anything like it before.

If you really believe that, you've led a charmed life.

I’ve got loads of them in the loft. I don’t think I’ll throw them away. The kids weren’t that into David Walliams as an author, but they always got the books as gifts. I’ve always felt he borrowed rather heavily from Roald Dahl, whose books I absolutely loved as a child.

My daughter always read the Jacqueline Wilson books, and it wasn’t until I skimmed through one myself that I realised I wasn’t keen on her reading them - the subtle messages in the stories didn’t really sit with me. I suppose it comes down to whether you can separate the work from the creator. For instance, I will still listen to Michael Jackson, even though some people would refuse to.

Has something new happened?

Has something happened? He's always been throughly unpleasant afaik, and I've long expected him to be the "next one", but I'm wondering what's prompted this post now?

Charity shop defo. If they're on sale in charity shops left right and centre, no-one's going to buy them new anymore – meaning DW gets zero ££ moving forward.👌

Rage olympics on this thread

We don’t support racism, so DW books have never been welcome in our home, our sons UK primary school had the same view.

Why recycling? What made you choose that over giving them to a charity shop or a free library?

This is factually correct though regardless of what you choose to believe.

Very much so.

I’d wager a good amount of the outraged folk on this thread own something from Microsoft (Bill Gates - Epstein connections), have watched a Harvey Weinstein movie (convicted rapist), buy from Amazon (lining Jeff Bezos’ pockets as he flouts labour laws and fair working conditions, amongst other things), buy clothes from Shein/ Temu (supporting child/ slave labour). It doesn’t make David Walliams’ alleged behaviour ok, of course, but it’s interesting who people choose to flame and who they choose to conveniently ignore the behaviour of depending what they want from them.

Not factually correct, legally correct. There's a big difference.

Plenty of people who have actually committed crimes have been found "not guilty" in court. The match between objective reality and legal judgement is obviously not 100% reliable.

I have always refused to buy them because he’s always given me the creeps.

My DS really enjoyed DW books when he was younger but I felt after you'd read one you'd read them all. DW books were the first book series DS really got into though and I assume other children will be the same as they were quite popular at the schol library. It's a shame some children who may have developed a love of reading from those books now won't.

Roald Dahl being praised so heavily has caught me by suprise. My DS really enjoyed reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to me but Great Glass Elevator was really difficult for us to get through. He took a break from Roald Dahl after Great Glass Elevator and never went back, I think it left a bad taste in his mouth.

define factually correct? It is widely known that fact and law are not the same thing, hence the expressions "de facto" (in fact) and "de jure" (in law). So, er, legally correct maybe (though innocence as a finding of law is incredibly rare, and usually reserved for addressing compensation after a wrongful conviction), but factually incorrect actually.

There are any number of bloody awful people who are wandering around "innocent" because they have the money or the connections to avoid charge, as the Epstein files indicate. By your definition there are more innocent wealthy and powerful men than any other kind of person. Statistically, though, if someone is accused the odds are likely 7:1 that the accusation is true vs false. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_accusation_of_rape

They are still sold in the charity shop and as pp have said, many are still being sold new.

My kids have never got into his books, but I wouldn’t stop them if they chose one of them to read- I would discuss any themes that come out of it though (like I have recently had to do when reading the Narnia series and the racism portrayed there).

i do know that the DW books have got many children reading though, so there must be something about them that children are attracted to.

I wouldn’t choose to buy them myself but wouldn’t override my children if they wanted them and wouldn’t throw them out personally.

My kids brought one back a couple of years back from school as a reading option. They were small. I believe the passage i read was something about fat uncles or aunts, but nonetheless crueller than i thought acceptable. I wrote an email to the teacher saying there must be better titles to read, and she changed their books. Im glad his cruel titles have lost their appeal now.

I was incorrect. I now know I meant legally correct, not factually.

David Walliams is so far out of my wheelhouse - my children aren't old enough to read and I never watched anything he was in on the telly

Genuinely out of the loop and there's a huge amount of conflicting info on google

Could someone clued up possibly summarise what particular brand of Vile Man he is from a parents perspective please?

The punching in the face may not be accurate - I need to check. The early Bronte biographies engaged in a lot of mythologising...

Why do you think your son got a bad taste from Glass Elevator?