David Walliams has made a rare comment about his son and revealed that the youngster suffers from dyslexia but is determined to get him and other children into reading
David Walliams has revealed that his son is dyslexic. The former Little Britain star, 54, has started up a second career as a children’s author in the years since he found fame in television comedy, and appeared on ITV’s Lorraine on Monday to promote his new book Santa & Son.
The former Britain’s Got Talent judge explained that the new book tackles the issue of children whose parents have divorced, and insisted that he always makes sure that his novels are packed with illustrations, especially because his own son Alfred, 12, who he has with ex-wife Lara Stone, suffers from the condition that causes difficulty with reading and spelling.
He said: “I wanted it to be a sort of comedy action adventure, and there’s also a serious part of hit because the dad hasn’t seen his son for many years – the parents have split up. So over the course of the night, the dad and the son bond in a way they hadn’t been able to over the years. Christmas, although it’s a happy time, there’s a bit of melancholy if someone isn’t there that you love so the book does explore that as well. But it is funny as well!
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“People always say ‘Do you know what I like best about your books? The illustrations!’ They’re brilliant. I’m very demanding with the illustrators, I want pictures on every page, something going on because I know with kids, and with my son, he’s dyslexic.”
Santa & Son is illustrated by Adam Stower and David explained that if there is too much text in a book, it can come across as “quite intimidating” for children.
He added: “Books with loads of text can be quite intimidating so I think if you’re breaking it up with fun pictures and doing things like having words leaping out, it makes it much more fun for kids. And it’s hard to get kids to read books. I wanna write books that they want to read, that it’s a pleasure of them to read.”
David then pleaded with viewers of the show to make time to read to their children, especially because it is so tricky to encourage children to do so nowadays.
“Also, I think it’s the reluctant readers that you want to reach. Unfortunately, a lot of kids, and a lot of boys are reluctant to read so you need to give them something fun. I gave these to a friend and they said ‘Oh, they whipped through 300 pages today…’ And that’s what I want!”
“If there’s any parents watching who haven’t made that part of their day, I would say – do! That 10 minutes, where you share a book together, everything calms down, you’re not looking at your phone, you’re not stressing.
“You make the time for it and it’s so lovely. My son puts his head on my shoulder as we read together and I do a page, he does a page, it’s a lovely way of sharing a story together.
“And then of course you’ve got things to talk about after when you’ve finished. What did you think of this, what do you think of that? What do you think is going to happen? I’ve always made time for it and I would always say to parents, if it’s not part of your routine – it really needs to become part of it.”
David previously opened up about his decision to raise his son with a ‘normal childhood’ like other children, and admitted that he always intended on giving his kids an ordinary life – despite his own fame and fortune.
“I knew what I was getting into, this is what I signed up to,” he recently explained.
“Making a television programme, being in the spotlight is unavoidable and if you’re a kid, it must be quite hard. You don’t know what they’re going to want to do with their lives. What’s the point of them being on display, I don’t understand it,” David told Hello! magazine.
Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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