David Walliams: UK Comedian and author on his new children's book 'Santa & Son'

Although he’s best known for his comedy, David Walliams has a growing portfolio of children’s literature. 

He’s sold more than 60 million copies worldwide and has just released his 44th book ‘Santa & Son’, just in time for Christmas. 

He released his first children’s book in 2008, and even after 17 years and nearly 50 books, Walliams still finds writing to be a challenging task.  

“You’re constantly scared, you think, oh my god, I’m gonna run out of ideas, or you think, oh god, this is too similar to something I’ve already done,” he told Mike Hosking.  

“The thing I try and do is move as far away as I can from something I’ve just done, because the thing is you just don’t want to repeat yourself.”  

A lot of his earlier works were set contemporary Britain and revolved around schools, and after a while he found he’d run out of ways to make a teacher character work. 

“I can’t think of any more traits that would make teachers funny,” he told Hosking. 

“So I thought I just have to move away from that and find different stories.” 

“I sort of have to make it difficult for myself just so I don’t end up going down the same path.” 

When it comes to success, Walliams explains that he’s not competitive in any major way. 

“I don’t see other people who do what I do as sort of foes or anything,” he said. 

“But of course I want my book to be well-received, I want kids to enjoy it, I want it to make people happy.”  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.