Camp David

Just finished his autobiography, which was released in October 2012. I expected to read about Walliams, not just as an actor but as a talented swimmer. After all, it ends with his huge success in Little Britain, so he was already swimming. Where did that come from? We want to know, but given the character he draws, there is no clue.I live in the USA, but was brought up in England. I am an actor and writer. Walliams kept a diary, which makes it possible to give you a day by day account of just about everything, which he does . . . (boring).From the actor's perspective, I was entirely hooked on the trials and tribulations of the showbiz life before success. Been there done that. However, I recognized just about none of the names he mentions. Probably fine with a UK reader, but to a US reader, they could be aliens. I'd give him 4 stars.As a writer, I give him a 2. It's not ok to cut and paste pages and pages of his diary. The book is written without form or logical construction, like LB. There seems to be little self imposed censorship incumbent upon a writer. Also, he is not completely honest about himself, which he assures us he is in his book promotional appearances. He leads one up to an inner life event, and then stops. What REALLY happened? Writing is about creating mind pictures, but he prefers to keep that his inner secret. And so we're left to ask, among other things, whether he really is homosexual, or accept his word for it. He tells how he spent the night in bed with a male, and then prefers not to tell whether they had sex.A book of self-revelation cannot be treated like a LB skit. But that's what he's done, IMO. I felt cheated. Thus I place him in the middle with a 3.

Camp David is a very well written autobiography where the author tells his stories with such details and particularity that are almost movie-like. His thoughtful wit and charm, which are abundant in this book, alleviate the reading experience.In this book, the comedian-actor talks about being camp, his early sexual experiences and growing up as a middle-class kid in Southern England. He also gives some interesting insights on working with his comedy partner, Matt Lucas and on popular characters in their act which fans of Little Britain will appreciate. His struggles with depression and suicide are told in this book with such honesty and heart. There are also many beautiful stories about the relationships the author have had with the famous and the unknown.It is definitely a good book for any comedy fan who is interested to go deeper in learning the being of a comedy performer. The Kindle version of the book, unlike many out there, is also very well produced and worth every penny.

I am a big fan of the wonderfully talented David Walliams work on the screen and in print. In Camp David, he gives an honest and detailed account of what looks like a pretty ordinary life, which is refreshing, which shaped him into a multi-talented man. I laughed along with him in it, as well as cried with him. He gives a thorough account of his years of struggles, including depression and thoughts of suicide to become what he is today and leaves us just as he is about to skyrocket to fame in Little Britain. I am so looking forward to his next installment , which he hints at in the last line of his book, Camp David.

Interesting and extremely talented man with a fascinating story to tell. Unfortunately I felt it was poorly written. The haphazard manner and laborious and sometimes unnecessary detail made it a bit boring in patches. I admire David Walliams for his comedic talent, fantastic and worthy efforts for charity and his general personality but while reading this book I almost started to dislike him at times. I can understand his relationship with his father and his lack of self confidence contributed to his depression and I applaud him for coming through at the other end. I believe the book just needed the hand of a professional writer to bring David's interesting story out more clearly. I will just have to watch some boxed sets of Little Britain to lift my spirits again! Well done to him for opening up about his early life and I certainly look forward to the next chapter.

I found this book interesting from start to finish. Instead of feeling critical of any name dropping as one reviewer mentioned, I enjoyed reading about the men and women David Walliams knows and has worked with in theatre and film. Many are well known in the British industry but also some were simply a vaguely familiar name to me before reading this book. I found him open, honest and introspective about his life and relationships, yet still able to chuckle at himself while sharing his darker days. I smiled often, yet also felt a sadness while reading about his struggles with depression. I will definitely look forward to a possible sequel on happier days and accomplishments; his marriage, baby etc, hopefully soon!

It was a nice look at David Walliams life. Kept me interested and was an easy read, even with all the English references. If you enjoy Little Brittan you would enjoy this book to know it's creator better.

David is open, candid, warm and funny. He is also incredibly vulnerable and has had many struggles which I was somewhat surprised to find. It is heartfelt that he never got to be fully understood by his father as David has brought so much love and joy to the world with his child like demeanor. Thank you for sharing part of your life - it was a joy to read and I am now an even bigger fan.

Well this story is a real eye opener. You get to know the real David WILLIAMS (his real name) warts and all. One wonders how he ever became a great comic, based on the ordinariness of his life up until Little Britain. It make you think that anything is possible. There is hop for everyone. I am still a bit confused as to whether he is gay, he has loved so many women and no blokes????

I didn't really finish it even though I enjoyed what I read - up to a point. (The constant grammatical inaccuracies of using I instead of me grated as well.)It was fairly repetitive overall and I began skimming the text about half way through. I bought it because I appreciated much of the humour of Little Britain.

Brutally honest, painful and funny all around! It makes me understand how a brilliant comedian was foamed from his early childhood. Highly recommended.

Enjoyable book. A realisation in what it takes to become 'an overnight sensation'

Fantastic. Loved every minute of it a very funny, interesting and insightful book.

I just finished this book and must admit even though I found interesting to start with, it was full of actors names and plays etc that went woosh over my head but I kept reading the book. Now I have finished to the book it was important to put all parts of the book that David Walliams has put in to get a true understanding of his life. The beginning, third part and final part were excellent for me and the parts I didn't enjoy were only due only to the names of many actors and what they starred in. For a lot of people they may know all of them as the ones I did know I found interesting to find out about them.I admire so much that David Walliams has opened his life to us, warts and all! To me I see him from the public eye as very funny indeed, very confident, someone who has no worries in his life. His book says different and a few of the things he described in his life I could understand where he was coming from. Well done David!