Demon Dentist

David Walliams’s success in publishing is rooted in his background in comedy, storytelling, and entertainment. The author was born in 1971 in Banstead, England, as David Williams; after growing up there, he earned a degree in drama from the University of Bristol and gained experience with the UK’s National Youth Theatre. To avoid being the second person named David Williams in an actor’s union, he changed the spelling of his surname from Williams to Walliams. After performing in sketch comedy TV shows in the 1990s, Walliams gained fame with his role in Little Britain, a television comedy in which he and collaborator Matt Lucas appeared together. After Little Britain, Walliams took on a variety of roles in TV, movies, and theater.

As Walliams accumulated experience in the entertainment industry, he began writing children’s books. The Boy in the Dress, a 2008 comedy about being different, became a bestseller and received favorable reviews; after its success, Walliams began writing for children consistently. As of 2024, Walliams’s fiction includes 22 children’s novels, seven children’s short story collections, and 12 picture books. Demon Dentist was his sixth novel, first published in 2013. Walliams’s fame increased when he joined the judging panel for the popular Britain’s Got Talent; he continued to write throughout his tenure on that show.

Walliams’s ability to blend genres contributes to his success and popularity as an author, with comedy being the common thread; for example, like Demon Dentist, Megamonster is a comedy that includes elements of fantasy, and Ratburger, another comedy, includes elements of horror. The comedies Astrochimp, Spaceboy, and Robodog include elements of science fiction. The popular Gangsta Granny series blends comedy with crime fiction elements. While many of Walliams’s novels for children include a mystery element as well—for example, Alfie tries to determine the identity of the mysterious tooth snatcher in Demon Dentist—the author employs more traditional mystery elements in Super Sleuth, blending his well-known comic style with a historical setting and murder-mystery plot.

In addition to his ability to blend genres, other factors have helped elevate Walliams’s success. For example, Walliams’s children’s stories are popular on the stage and in film production. Birmingham Stage Company has offered several productions of Walliams’s books, including a year-long run of their Demon Dentist adaptation. These stage and screen reworkings have helped Walliams’s brand grow; the author also complements his publishing successes with personal appearances, recorded read-a-louds of his works, and his website’s inclusion of both free teaching materials and an extensive merchandise shop. Discussion surrounding similarities between Walliams’s fiction and that of famed children’s writer Roald Dahl may also contribute to this writer’s success; points of comparison include the use of comedy, dramatic plots, familiar character types, and the use of hyperbole. Finally, this writer’s success is notable in terms of literary awards: Walliams was honored with the National Book Award for Demon Dentist, Ratburger, and Awful Auntie in the Children’s Book of the Year category.