David Walliams had it all. Fame, success and awards coming out of his ears. But it wasn't until the comedian met the love of his life, supermodel Lara Stone, that we began to see a softer side to him, and with it came his new career as a children's author. Katherine MacAlister talks to the Little Britain star about love, life, farting and picking your nose.

David Walliams is about to disappear off to Kenya for Comic Relief when we speak, but he still manages to squeeze in a few minutes to talk about his best-selling books and new play Mr Stink.

Which is fair enough.

Having married Dutch supermodel Lara Stone last year in an elaborate ceremony at Claridges, David Walliams has settled down to a life of domestic bliss and been keeping a low profile ever since.

Gone are the column inches, the womanising, and pictures of him on the red carpet, to be replaced by David Walliams the children’s author and devoted husband who “highly recommends” marriage to anyone who’ll listen. What a turnaround.

But like everything Walliams sets his hand to, from Little Britain to swimming the Channel, his books are no different – he gives them his all and they, in turn, are hugely successful.

“The first book started off because I was wondering what would happen if a boy went to school dressed as a girl, and that maybe it would work as a children’s book because the audiences at Little Britain were often quite young and I thought it would be great to do stuff for them.

“I’ve been writing for a really long time for Ant and Dec, and children’s TV, so I reckoned I could probably do it and gave it a go,” he says modestly.

Book sales of 250,000 so far, a fourth book in the pipeline and his second book Mr Stink being made into a children’s play, was certainly beyond even Walliams’ expectations however.

“I thought the first book would be OK because someone in TV comedy had written it. But for the second to get so much interest and the third to have done so incredibly well. It’s better than TV,” he grins.

The Mr Stink play, hits Oxford’s Playhouse on Tuesday, complete with a scratch-and-sniff booklet for each child, devised by Walliams himself. “The play is very close to how I’d imagined the characters myself, so it’s a very faithful adaption.

And it may be indulgent but I’m very flattered and really chuffed about it,”

he says.

Why Walliams is a successful children’s author, isn’t so much down to his celebrity status, but because he has tuned into what children want to read with an unnerving accuracy that’s had him favourably compared with Roald Dahl (his childhood hero). “My books are aimed at 8-10 year-old’s because they like the rude bits, like farting and picking your nose,” Walliams smiles.

“But you also have to take people on an emotional journey with believable characters, and there needs to be a point or a message.”

So does he worry about the responsibility of influencing young children’s minds? “Of course, but then I realised that you can worry too much.

“Think about George’s Marvellous Medicine, what’s the point of it? That you can poison your granny? What if children read it and try it at home?

“But it’s our culture that censors the work and children know it’s not real life and just enjoy it for what it is.”

And yet Walliams has had to fight harder than any unknown author for his own credibility in the world of children’s books.

“When someone comes from TV comedy to write a book for kids there is a lot of cynicism, that you are doing it for the wrong reasons like Katie Price, or that someone else is writing it for you. So getting Quentin Blake on board to do the illustrations was very good for me and made people think The Boy In A Dress was a proper piece of work.”

“And what a catch,“ the 39 year-old agrees. So how did they get him? ”When I wrote The Boy In The Dress my publishers asked who I’d like to illustrate it and of course I said Quentin Blake. We thought we’d never get him because he’s such a legendary figure. And then he asked to read it and liked it, and agreed to illustrate it, same with the second,” Walliams grins.

Why Walliams has his doubts or worries, with his success, is hard to fathom, but he obviously cares deeply about his books. “It’s a bit of a surprise,” he concedes, before adding as an afterthought, “but the thing with writing is that I’m really enjoying it. It’s a proper job.”

Like everything else he does then.

* Mr Stink runs at the Oxford Playhouse on Tuesday and Wednesday. Box office on 01865 305388.