David Walliams: The Boy in the Dress

Following offerings from Madonna, Julianne Moore and Darcey Bussell, Little Britain star David Walliams is the latest star to rise to the challenge, with respectable results.

Still reeling from the day two years ago when his mother walked out, 12-year-old Dennis has watched his family fall apart.

Life doesn’t look up until he finds himself in detention with Lisa, the coolest girl in the school. (Could she be named after Strictly Come Dancing’s Lisa Snowdon, the woman said to have broken Walliams’s heart?)

Dennis’s lorry-driving father has banned his favourite escapist magazine, not the sort favoured by his hormonal big brother but glossy fashion bible Vogue. (His dad blames “Small England or whatever it’s called where those two idiots dress up as ‘laydees’.”)

Happily, Lisa shares Dennis’s passion for women’s fashion.

“Why shouldn’t everyone be able to wear whatever they like?” she demands, prompting Dennis to play a bold cross-dressing trick on their schoolmates. Of course, it backfires horribly.

While the storyline isn’t always wholly convincing (how often do girls like Lisa befriend lost souls like Dennis?), Walliams’s brand of wish fulfilment is just credible enough to reel you in and he draws loyal, sympathetic characters.

Nor is this a reductive story of a closet transvestite since Dennis is also the perfectly heterosexual star of the school football team. Rather, The Boy In The Dress is encouraging its readers to be true to themselves.

While Walliams evokes Dennis’s loneliness well, The Boy In The Dress also contains as much humour as you might want from a comedian, particularly in the heartwarming dénouement.

Although it’s a pity that Quentin Blake’s expressive illustrations are black and white, his contribution is an added incentive to read a moral tale of tolerance and self-confidence.

What better example could a children’s book set?

OUR VERDICT: 3/5

By David Walliams

Illustrations by Quentin Blake

HarperCollins, £12.99