Author and comic calls for libraries to be ‘safeguarded’
BESTSELLING author David Walliams has called for the “safeguarding” of libraries.
The comedian and writer of books such as Mr Stink, The World’s Worst Children and Gangsta Granny said that “access to reading” should be improved.
In an interview in the Radio Times Christmas issue, imagining what he would do if he was prime minister, Walliams, 47, said: “I’d introduce new laws on children’s literacy.
“Whenever I am filming around the country I try to make time to go into a school and give out copies of my books. World Book Day provides books for children and for a quarter of the kids it’s the first book they ever own.
“So I’d want to improve access to reading and safeguard libraries. I used to go to the library every couple of weeks with my mum and dad and get out books like Stig Of The Dump and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.
“My son is five and a half and when we read together it’s the most magical time. But I know that’s a luxury not everybody has. So as prime minister I’d improve that situation.”
The Library Campaign, a national charity, said further cuts to stretched services were “like taking a hammer to a wall that’s already full of holes”.
Walliams was the biggest-selling author of 2017 in the UK, overtaking JK Rowling with sales of more than £16 million from his children’s books.