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.

Certainly he won't get money directly, but them staying in circulation maintains a market for his work.

are we burning JK Rowling too, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book etc etc all these books/authors are or have been covered in controversy.

Whatever you think of him or the books, kids loved them. And then we have adults saying they are awful and badly written - newsflash they weren’t written for you and not all kids want to read some sanctimonious kid’s novel that’s deemed as high brow! It is exactly this snobbery that gets in the way of kids reading!

I have an 8 year old who loves them...I don't have the heart to tell him the author is an awful human being. I'd also feel wierd about dictating what he reads (within reason obviously) and I agree with pp, we'd have to burn a lot of books if we only want morally sound authors.

It's down to you - if you're happy putting money into that person's pockets then no-one is going to stop you.

But there's loads of children's authors out there, it's not like finding a replacement for Walliams is difficult. I doubt he'd be an author if he hadn't been famous first.

Lot of plagiarism in his books. Poor copying of Roald Dahl and of Anne Fine who wrote Bill’s New Frock.

My children had some and I got rid of them a couple of years ago when stuff began to get reported.
His publisher has pulped at least one of his upcoming books that had already been printed due to the additional allegations reported last year.

For me it's the personal ick thing about Walliams coupled with the book. I haven't been exposed to other authors in the same way because most are TV stars first, authors second and I do think you have to consider this element. Your understanding and perception of him is different as a result. He just makes my skin crawl and I didn't need a verified scandal to feel like that.

I think he's a god awful man and always have.

And yes I freely admit an element of snobbery too.

I think there's other books that cover the same group as Walliams does so I don't think DS has ever missed out on the children's book experience.

I feel the same about Michael Jackson’s music. I can’t listen to him anymore because all I can think of is those little boys he abused.

@RedToothBrushtotally appreciate your point and appreciate your honesty ☺️

trouble is publishers seem to give anyone that’s a celebrity or who has a following a book deal (think of the controversy about Jamie Oliver’s recent kid’s book or the fact LadBaby is a best selling children’s picture book writer) the whole industry is insane at the moment and means real, great talent doesn't get to shine through as much.

hoping they’ll be a massive backlash against influencer culture if I’m honest. (I can be a snob too) and almost forgot Fergie was about to release more kid’s books before all the scandal regarding her and Andrew dropped!

am not from UK... what is wrong with the author?

When I did my research before giving my DC the books, I swerved them due to the content. Have a look on 'missdorransclassroom' on Instagram for examples.

Our council don't accept books for kerbside recycling so I would take them to charity. I'd never bin them due to environmental waste. Or the recycling centre has a big book bin.

I assume they are your child's so you don't own them - they do .I

Having said that , if they've been read and no longer wanted and you don't want to donate ( and they are obviously causing you distress ) bin them in your paper recycling so they are turned to something else .

Sorry haven't read the full thread so may have been mentioned, but didn't anyone else find alot of inappropriate sexual innuendo if DW books? Must of been obvious if I caught it. Years since I read any but I felt so uneasy, I remember thinking surely not, I'm imagining things but it always bugged me. Makes sense now however and doesn't surprise me at all now.

I tried as a rule to actively avoid celebrity childrens authors. Most are ghost written anyway. They just aren't as good as traditional writers and I find the celebrity writer thing just awful.

It's not that hard to track down great authors. The booktrusts monthly recommendations have always been a really good place to start and then looking through reviews before buying. The Amazon 'if you like this book, try this one' recommendation is one use of algorithms that isn't actually that terrible either if you start with a book you know someone likes.

The big thing with Walliams was that he got supermarket space which is such a big driver of sales. That's what I find really frustrating; the massive marketing and celebrity cashing in.

There are other proper authors who have gone viral and got traction from being good that the supermarkets have picked up on though and I wish they'd do the same for others instead of celebrity authors but I get they are easier to market and flog.

DW is a complete dick and his books are rubbish, no doubt about that.

But if we’re going to start condemning all authors because they don’t fit our morals, we’ll soon be left with no books to read!

unproven?

So you think this kind of behaviour towards a 16 year old boy is acceptable and not at all innapropriate? Pretending to be a sexual predator for laughs?

www.indy100.com/showbiz/david-walliams-gay-sketch-2007

@RedToothBrushyes everything you say is true. So many great children’s book (and a lot of sanctimonious stuff that kid’s don’t find enjoyable too), having worked in the industry for a long time publishing isn’t this nice cosy industry everyone imagines. Wages are AWFUL even with huge profits and it’s only the top table that seem to see big wages. A lot working in the industry struggle to make ends meet, unless you’re married or from a wealthy family! They make mass redundancies but then expect those left behind to pick up insane workloads. Rant over!

Roald Dahl was a breath of fresh air to a kid in the 80s relative to Enid blyton books where no houses had a toilet. It was funny to see mention of gross things in print then. Now I find the books annoyingly mean spirited and hes taking up space in the canon that someone new deserves.
Walliams is awful and that’s basically my beef with him, or rather the publishing industry , too - their job is to find us the best among all the dedicated determined writers toiling away. Instead they lazily platformed a celebrity because it’s cheaper than doing real marketing. And his work is trash.
throw them away. Demand better for all the kids - yours and the ones getting their books from the charity shops

Yep, Barrie's attitude to the Llywelyn boys was certainly odd.

I agree with @RedToothBrush. DC were given a few of his books, and we got a few out of the library. They were at the ‘I want them to read anything that gets them reading’ stage. But I have higher standards for books I read out loud to them and after I gritted my teeth through one (Demon Dentist I think) I refused to read any more - the ‘World’s Worst’ ones were particularly awful.

It is their choice what to do with books that they own. They have grown out of them mostly now. I certainly would not set an example of binning/recycling a book because I didn’t approve of the author, so a conversation would go along the lines of ‘do you want to keep this? If not, do you think anyone else would like to read it?’

‘A swarm in May’ (William Mayne) sits on my bookshelf. I loved it, and the sequels which I don’t own. The quality of his writing is superb. I have decided not to give it to my children to read. But if they had read it already and loved it I wouldn’t take it away.

Except that I think most of the best authors are flawed in some way. All the best writing makes us think - and if we only accept authors without controversy then all that will be left will be extremely bland.
Burning books because we disagree with the authors beliefs and ideas is a key part of authoritarianism ( and nazism).

@Newstartplease24my favourite was George’s Marvellous Medicine - basically a manual on how to poison your horrible grandmother! I love the fact it basically was a long list of all the most toxic and foul things kids should never really touch! I loved it and still love it to day! Favourite line ‘had a mouth like a puckered up dog’s bottom’ haha!
would love to know what a commissioning editor would do with that manuscript if it came in now!! 😂

Why does someone new “deserve” it? If they want their place in the canon, they should write something worthy of a place in the canon.

There are a lot of great new authors who have written their way into it, and I can’t think of a single author who has been blocked by Roald Dahl’s books.

There’s also a lot of repetitive tripe out there that seems to sell, especially if it’s connected to fairies, unicorns, and witches. They might as well be written by ChatGPT.

@Newstartplease24inalso don’t find any of Dahl’s books mean spirited. I think he had a unique talent for describing good and bad adults to children! His stories were and will always be unique - Matilda is a work of genius and is one of my favourite books to date! He never patronised children and I think nowadays we have so many parents policing what they deem to be good reads without caring what their children like!