Actor-turned-writer David Walliams talks to Stephen Jewell about his third children’s book and the truth behind his anarchic tales for kids.
From Sharon Osbourne to Katie Price, many celebrities have penned magnum opuses that have actually mostly been the work of anonymous ghostwriters. But when David Walliams' debut The Boy In The Dress first appeared in 2008, the Little Britain star insisted that he wrote every word himself.
Now, two years later, the 39-year-old London-based actor's third children's novel, Billionaire Boy, goes on sale this month.
"Having a book for sale in a shop is a slightly abstract thing," he says. "But I'm excited about people being able to read it. I just hope the kids like it because if they don't like a book, they'll just stop reading it."
Having completed three books in the same number of years - his second effort Mr Stink, the tale of a lonely girl who befriends a particularly smelly tramp, was released last year - Walliams is now getting into his stride.
"The more you write, the more you find out how to write," he says.
"You get better at it. With the first book, it felt like I had a strong idea, that it was the kind of story that only I could write, a story about a boy in a dress. But when I finished it, I really had the urge to write more."
Billionaire Boy centres around 12-year-old Joe Spud, who is so preposterously rich that he owns "everything he could ever want," including a grand prix racing track in his back garden, 500 pairs of Nike trainers and even a real life shark in a tank. The son of a toilet paper mogul, he is nicknamed '"the Bog Roll Kid" and ostracised by the posh pupils of his ridiculously expensive private school.
Hoping to make some friends, he transfers to the nearby grammar school, where, at first, no one knows who he really is.
"I felt like the theme of the book was quite relevant to kids today," says Walliams. "I don't know about New Zealand but in Britain at least, becoming rich and famous is now an ambition that many people have. It used to be that achieving fame and wealth was connected to having a talent, like if you were a brilliant singer you might become rich and famous off of the back of that. But we now live in a culture where people can become famous and wealthy overnight without really doing anything."
Unfortunately, Joe's true identity is exposed after his father, "who thinks that money solves everything", arrives at school by helicopter. After that nothing is the same for Joe or for those around him.
"He changes and everybody else also changes," says Walliams. "There's something about having money that does things like that to people. It's said that it does this or that to you but it's a complicated subject. It changes relationships and it changes people for good and for bad, like the dinner lady at Joe's school who misspends the money that he gives her for her hip operation."
As one half of one of the most successful comedy double acts of the last decade, Walliams has partly based Joe's story on his own experiences. "The book isn't actually autobiographical," he says. "I certainly wasn't a millionaire as a child. I have had the experience of making money and I'm comfortably off now. And people often stop me in the streets, which is nice. So I can relate to how the people around him change."
Since the last series of Little Britain in 2009, Walliams has continually appeared in the headlines. He won plaudits for his performance alongside Michael Gambon in a sellout season of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land at the Duke of York Theatre in London's West End in 2008, which coincided with the iconic playwright's death. Previously linked with a string of beauties including Patsy Kensit, Abi Titmuss and Lauren Budd, Walliams married Dutch model Lara Stone at Claridge's Hotel last May.
"We're all fascinated by how very wealthy people live their lives," he says. "But it's a myth that if people suddenly win millions of pounds, their lives will be super-transformed for the better. In some ways they will be but really only superficially. They might buy a new house and a new car but in their hearts it just might not do it for them."
Billionaire Boy also features eccentric newsagent Raj, who first appeared in The Boy In The Dress. "I've found him to be a very useful character," says Walliams. "He's not a parent or a teacher so when he gives advice it's in a way that doesn't sound like you're being told off by him. He's kind of on your side and on your level. He's also a very funny character and I write him a bit like Q in James Bond. He keeps popping up a lot."
The Boy In The Dress was frequently compared to the work of the late Roald Dahl, with London entertainment guide Time Out declaring that "Walliams' storytelling has a lovely Dahlian fluency to it", while the Observer praised its "old- fashioned, spiky morality that those of us who grew up on Roald Dahl know and love". However, Walliams' anarchic tales are set in recognisable surroundings rather than the fabulous landscapes of classics like Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Fantastic Mr Fox. And his young protagonists don't come to such sticky fates as some of the unfortunate spoilt brats in Dahl's sometimes sinister-edged parables.
"I suppose we share a kind of dark humour," he says. "I certainly love his books but they're quite different to mine. The plots of his books like Danny, The Champion Of The World or The BFG are much more fantastic and he gets away with having quite a lot of dark things happening in his books.
"That's a tough thing to pull off because you don't want to put off the parents but somehow he does it in a way that feels acceptable."
The Boy In The Dress and Mr Stink were both illustrated by Roald Dahl's long time artist Quentin Blake, who passed the reins to Tony Ross for Billionaire Boy.
"When Quentin realised that he couldn't do this book, he recommended Tony," says Walliams. "He's equally brilliant and I've really enjoyed working with him. He has quite a different style of drawing and when he's drawn a character like Raj, who has appeared before, his approach has been not to look at what Quentin had done before but to start again."
Despite the success of his novels, Walliams is reluctant to return to former glories, leaving the script for Sky's forthcoming television adaptation of The Boy In The Dress to Made in Dagenham screenwriter Billy Ivory. He is also taking a hands-off approach to Leicester theatre company Curve's stage musical of Mr Stink, which will open in Britain next year.
"Otherwise the temptation would have been to write out the dialogue exactly as it is in the book without changing it," he says, although he hopes to play a small role in The Boy In The Dress. "That's the plan but I'm not sure what the part will be yet."
He is instead concentrating on finishing his next novel, which will be aimed once again at younger readers. "I'm always led by the idea and if I have an idea tomorrow for an adult book then that's what I'll do," says Walliams. "But I really enjoy writing for children. When Matt and I did Little Britain Live, I noticed that there were a lot of kids in the audience so I wanted to do something for them. But it's quite a big responsibility. I meet a lot of kids at signings and they often tell me that The Boy In The Dress or Mr Stink is the best thing that they've ever read. They look up to me and you come to realise that your ideas shape them and affect that the way they think. It's quite hard to encourage children, and especially boys, to read so if you're not careful, you could put them off reading for life."
Walliams says that his books' frequent - and literal - toilet humour appeals to young males. "When I ask them what their favourite bits are, they always say that it's when the boy was sick on the other boy," laughs Walliams. "They never say that it's the characterisation or the plot, and I like that."
Billionaire Boy (HarperCollins $24.99) is out now.
