The multi-million-pound literary franchise of David Walliams has come to a definitive end. HarperCollins has confirmed that it will phase out all remaining copies of the comedian’s twenty-three children’s books, removing print, audio, and digital editions from global distribution.
The decision expands on the publisher’s announcement late last year that it would cease publishing new work by Walliams. The termination followed an internal company inquiry into allegations of inappropriate conduct toward junior female employees. Former staff members alleged that managers advised them to work with the author in pairs and warned them against visiting his private residence.
Walliams has denied all wrongdoing. His spokesperson stated: “David has never been informed of any allegations raised against him by HarperCollins. He was not party to any investigation or given any opportunity to answer questions. David strongly denies that he has behaved inappropriately and is taking legal advice.”
Simultaneously, talent agency YMU has ended its active commercial representation of the fifty-four-year-old television personality, removing his profile from its roster after previously managing his broadcasting roles.
Racial Caricatures and the Removal of Brian Wong
The collapse of the partnership brings renewed scrutiny to the recurring racial stereotypes embedded within books that have sold over sixty million copies worldwide. For years, educators and advocacy groups flagged the author’s portrayals of minority figures, drawing particular attention to the treatment of East Asian characters.
In 2021, intense public criticism forced HarperCollins to pull the story “Brian Wong, Who Was Never, Ever Wrong” from future editions of the 2016 volume The World’s Worst Children. The tale centred on a studious Chinese boy drawn with exaggerated narrow eyes and thick spectacles, relying on stale academic tropes.
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Campaigner and podcaster Georgie Ma led the public call for the story’s removal, pointing out how early exposure to such depictions normalises casual racism among young readers.
“The overall character plays on the model minority myth where Chinese people are nerdy, swotty and good at maths, we’re not confrontational and we’re high achievers,” Ma told The Bookseller, adding that the story “normalised jokes on minorities from a young age.”
Following the backlash, HarperCollins agreed to commission a different story to replace the character in later printings.
Stereotypes of South Asian Shopkeepers
The scrutiny extends beyond East Asian caricatures to other prominent minority roles in his stories. Walliams repeatedly featured Raj, a recurring South Asian newsagent depicted as a stingy merchant who habitually sells expired goods to neighbourhood children while speaking in fractured, non-standard English.
Community advocates condemned the portrayal as a damaging reproduction of historical commercial slurs. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, challenged the characterisation following a BBC adaptation of The Midnight Gang.
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“It’s a stereotypical character,” Shafiq noted. “To target a community and suggest that community’s shopkeepers are involved in selling out-of-date food is deeply unacceptable. In most cases these shopkeepers have been the fabric of their community for decades and I am uncomfortable with that joke.”
Anti-racism campaigner Gerry Gable, editor of Searchlight magazine, warned of the lasting impressions left on primary school readers. “Walliams is planting in kids’ minds that Asian shopkeepers are villains or not to be trusted,” Gable stated. “The whole stereotyping is disgraceful.”
A Television Pattern Repeated in Print
The controversies across Walliams’s book catalogue reflect patterns established during his early television career. On the BBC sketch comedy Little Britain, which he created with Matt Lucas, Walliams frequently wore blackface and yellowface to portray grotesque caricatures of ethnic minorities, work that streaming services eventually removed or edited in 2020.
His decade-long position on Britain’s Got Talent collapsed in 2022 after leaked transcripts revealed him making derogatory, sexually explicit remarks about contestants between takes at the London Palladium.
With HarperCollins actively stripping his titles from store shelves and author listings, one of the most commercially profitable children’s book runs in modern publishing history now faces a permanent reckoning.
