Walliams faces fierce competition from authors including Frank Cottrell Boyce, Mark Lowery, Josh Lacey and Jamie Thomson
Comedian and Channel swimmer David Walliams has made the shortlist for the Roald Dahl funny prize for the third time in five years with his tale of a grandmother who behaves in unexpected ways, Gangsta Granny.
The Little Britain star has become one of the fastest-selling authors in the UK, with more than 20,000 books a week flying off the shelves. In previous years he was in the running for the prize with The Boy in the Dress and Mr Stink, both illustrated by Quentin Blake, the former children's laureate who worked with Dahl from 1975 until the author's death in 1990.
He faces fierce competition in the seven-14 category, not least from Frank Cottrell Boyce, who is currently feted for the script he wrote for the Olympics opening ceremony, directed by Danny Boyle. He's in the running with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, his follow-up to Ian Fleming's classic novel about a flying car. It's another contender with a Dahl connection, though rather more tangential – the film script for the 1968 musical of Fleming's book was co-written by Roald ...
