Bonding with kids through the magic of books

“Falling out with people that you love ... friendships ending, relationships ending,” British comedian, actor and writer David Walliams replies to the Proust Questionnaire question “What do you most regret in life?”

“Those are things that I think about and also regret. When you feel like you’ve let someone down and could have done things differently, and you wish you had. And it’s very hard to find a way back from it.”

As public a figure as Walliams is, he opts for privacy when it comes to his innermost psyche.

Born David Williams, he adopted his pseudo-nom de plume when he joined Equity — the trade union for the performing arts and entertainment industries in the UK — as another David Williams was already a member. 

Active in stage and radio work since the late 1990s, Walliams entered the televised comedic culture with Little Britain (2003-2006), a sketch comedy in which he and fellow English comedian Matt Lucas parodied Britons across the social spectrum.

Popular as it was, the show elicited criticism for its portrayal of ethnic and minority groups, with Walliams being accused of “yellow-facing” after sharing an image of himself dressed up as North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un (for Halloween) on his Twitter account in November 2017.

Walliams elicited further controversy in November 2022 when, in his capacity as a judge for Britain’s Got Talent, he was recorded making offensive remarks to a contestant. In a statement afterwards he said: “These were private conversations and — like most conversations with friends — were never intended to be shared. Nevertheless, I am sorry.”

About 15 years ago Walliams started writing children’s books, and so far no parent or teacher has told him that they won’t let the children in their care read what he writes.

“They may think that privately but they don’t come up to me in the street and say it,” says the author, in South Africa for a book tour. “Teachers can make their own decisions about what they want kids to read. In class, you’re looking at things that generally are more artistic, more towards literature,” he says, citing Shakespeare (“I love Shakespeare!”) and Ted Hughes as examples.

But he regrets the lack of emphasis on reading for pleasure.

“I feel with kids, getting them to read for themselves, as in something they just want to read, and get them chuckling away, is valuable. If kids start off reading my books and then progress to reading things that are more intellectual and more challenging, then, you know, I’ve done my job.”

He has published 41 children’s books since 2008, which have been translated into 55 languages. His latest title (and debut comic book adventure) Astrochimp was published earlier this year.

His parents instilled a love of reading and stories in him as a child.

He remembers his mother reading him and his sister Beatrix Potter (The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher receives a nod), whereas his father introduced him to Dr Seuss. “I prefer Dr Seuss because the illustrations are just so extraordinary and it’s a weird, nightmarish world he depicts. Things keep repeating and going out of control, much like dreams. It’s quite stressful!”

I feel with kids, getting them to read for themselves, as in something they just want to read, and get them chuckling away, is valuable

One of his favourites is The Cat in the Hat: “The cat brings chaos, but I loved it and still love it.”

The doyen of English-language children’s books, Roald Dahl, also left an indelible mark on Walliams, who points to Dahl’s work when asked what he reads — and has read — to his 11-year-old his son, Alfred (whose mother is Walliams’ ex-wife, Dutch supermodel Lara Stone). 

“We made our way through all the Roald Dahl books, some more than once because he loved them so much,” says Walliams, mentioning Danny: Champion of the World as one of Alfred’s favourites. “It’s a great one for dads and sons,” he adds.

“One of the things I like is having proper time to really explore other writers,” Walliams says. “Enjoying their work and also seeing it through the eyes of a child. We often forget that children’s books are for children. At the end of the day, kids are the ones who are reading them.”

Encouraging parents to read to young kids is yet another “great pleasure”. 

“If they look at books as part of their day, particularly before bedtime — kids want a story before bed. Kids love a story, they want to hear it again and again and again! Because they like their favourites. It’s comforting.”

Walliams decries the advent of technology (“things are moving so fast, things like TikTok videos which are 15 seconds long”), which he says could result in a generation of children who can’t concentrate for longer than 15 seconds.

But “books are still special to most kids”, he optimistically adds. “They are brilliant things you can share together,” he says; putting your devices aside and focusing on a book is a “lovely moment” to share with a child. 

Illustrations “add everything to a story”, says Walliams, who has worked with the likes of illustrator Quentin Blake, Tony Ross and Adam Stower. 

“The best books are with illustrations that worked together. In Roald Dahl’s books he relied on illustrations in his partnership with Quentin Blake. By the time you get to things like George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Twits, it’s how it tells the story.”

Walliams recalls flicking through books at the library as a kid, likening it to flicking through a film trailer: “The pictures can tell you if it’s going to be a good story. Really great illustrators enhance it, they create humour, they create emotion. A book can never have enough illustrations.”

Illustrations make for visual pleasure for children: “It’s not just pages and pages of text. Obviously, young children like picture books. I’m very lucky to have worked with some very talented illustrators.

“And often it’s what you remember about the stories,” he says, commending John Tenniel’s original illustrations for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “It feels so intrinsic to the whole look and feel of the story.”

How did writing Astrochimp go?

“It’s quite interesting because we talked about the pictures telling the story for you, so what I had to do was to write a much longer version of the story that is actually text in the book. I had to explain things, I had to describe things in great detail,” he explains — this was for the benefit of Stower, who did the illustrations. “But once we had the illustrations, we realised that some of the text was not necessary because, well, the illustrations tell the story, and we cut back.”

Inversely, the audiobook uses the longer version, as listeners are enjoying an aural, not visual, story.

“I’ve never done a book so reliant on illustrations. I really loved it. I feel like my mission is to encourage kids who are not that into reading, to read. Kids have such different abilities; I feel like I’m an entertainer, I never thought of myself as anything more than that.”

He adds that certain “great children’s writers, like Lewis Carroll” write books that become literature, but “that’s not me. I feel like I want to write the most entertaining books possible,” hoping to get boys — who tend to “fall behind” in reading, compared with girls “who are generally a bit smarter, better at paying attention, more studious and more drawn to books than boys” — to express and develop an interest in reading. 

Walliams refers to Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man and Jamie Smart’s Bunny vs Monkey as books boys are drawn to. He would like to write a story for a graphic novel as a way of attracting  boys to reading.

Walliams writes across genres (his bibliography includes novels, short stories, picture books and novellas) “to keep it interesting for me, to not try and replicate myself, but also to make it interesting for the reader, so that they feel like ‘Oh, this is different!’.

“At the end of day, it’s a crazy process. It’s just things that you think, things that you want to pursue, you’re listening to your instincts and they’re telling you ‘the story would be great as a graphic novel’.”

Back to the Prous Questionnaire: what is his idea of perfect happiness?

“Being with my son,” comes the unequivocal response. “I just had this amazing weekend with him. We just laughed together, walked the dogs, cuddled on the sofa, went to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. There is nothing that I love more than being with my son. He’s well-behaved, he’s 11 and still wants to hold my hand and kiss me goodbye when he goes to school. 

“It’s the best relationship I’ve ever had in my life. It’s just pure love. There’s nothing about it that doesn’t give me great joy. I don’t see him all the time, I’m a single dad, and it’s painful because I miss him...”

His voice trails off, but he continues brightly: “The interesting thing with kids is, they start to be their own person. They become good at things, they become interested in things. He’s kind of like my best mate, really. I just want his childhood to be the happiest it can be. And people often say to me, ‘Are you happy?’ And I say, ‘Well, Alfred’s happy, so I’m happy.’”

As for his current state of mind?

“Positive! I just had an event in Pretoria and it was a really warm reception with lots of laughs. Although I’m a bit tired because I got off the plane this morning, I’m feeling energised by the responses I got.

“Sometimes — with humour — there might be cultural differences, or things aren’t quite going to land, but this was one of the best audiences I’ve ever had, so I was very happy.”

He was equally touched by the number of questions he was asked by children about his books and writing. You have to “really think about the answer. I don’t feel like I’m wise but I feel like I’ve got to give them some pearls of wisdom because they’re going to remember it, because it was a well-known person who gave them advice.”

He shares an anecdote about meeting Rowan Atkinson when he was working stage doors as a kid, and asking Atkinson what advice he would give an aspiring comedian.

“And he went ‘Don’t do it!’” Walliams laughs. 

“With kids, when I’m asked questions, I always take time. Even if it’s one person you inspired, it’s fantastic. And I feel like it’s a responsibility. Before, when I was doing comedy for grown-ups, the aim was just to make people laugh and to be shocking sometimes or to be outrageous. It’s a bit different when you have a child audience. There’s more substance to what you do because these stories can shape the way they think and feel about the world.”

Whereas grown-ups often request selfies, kids have questions, he adds. “It’s very sweet and they’ve got something they want to tell you about.” Young fans have shared how they can relate to Gangster Granny. “There’s the part with Granny dying, and kids have said, ‘That helped me, because I lost my granny. It helped me get through that.’

“Even if it’s entertaining, there is something in there that I hope kids might find emotional in some way.”