Once upon a time, kids’ books weren’t written by celebs

Is It time to ban actors and celebrities from writing children’s books? too late!

the shameless horrors have noted the success of David Walliams, whose bestselling fiction for young readers is an established favourite, and stampeded into the lucrative arena like Gruffalo on heat.

Clare Balding has dashed off some old tosh about horses, while Dermot O’Leary, George Galloway, Frank Lampard, Julian Clary and Fearne Cotton are all in there, vying to be the next big thing on the little ones’ reading lists.

Of course, celebritypenned children’s books are nothing new. From Madonna’s English Roses, Ricky Gervais and his Flanimals and sarah Ferguson’ s Budgie the Little Helicopter, celebs have been keen to become authors without having to bother with all that complicated nonsense about proper plots and grown-up writing.

Listen. You don’t have to be able to string two words together, so long as you can read the royalty cheque.

It’s so unfair on genuinely talented children’s authors, who are being edged out of the market by these upstarts. And the children are missing out, too.