Mr Stink

Chloe is a lonely 12-year-old girl who is bullied at school. Her mother, Caroline, prefers Chloe's academically successful and extra-curricularly ambitious younger sister, Annabelle, and is highly ambitious and running for parliament. Her father has lost his job but is afraid to tell his wife. Chloe meets a smelly tramp known as Mr Stink, befriends him and hides him and his filthy dog Duchess in the garden shed. When he is discovered, Caroline, who advocates clearing homeless people off the streets, falsely claims to have invited him to stay with the family. She and Mr Stink appear together on the TV show Question Time, where Mr Stink is a great success with the audience and embarrasses Caroline by revealing the truth about who gave him shelter. The TV appearance leads to an audience with Steve the British Prime Minister, who makes Mr Stink an offer to which Chloe says, "[S]tick it up your fat bum!". It is later revealed Mr Stink is a Lord who became a tramp after the death of his wife. Mr Stink declines to change his ways and resumes his travels.{{cite news |author=Virginia Blackburn |url=https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/138441/Mr-Stink-David-Walliams |title=Mr Stink: David Walliams |newspaper=Daily Express|date=6 November 2009 }}{{cite news |author=Henry IX |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/sep/05/review-mr-stink-david-walliams |title=Children's books: Mr Stink by David Walliams – review |newspaper=The Guardian |date=5 September 2014 }}

Mr Stink was first published by HarperCollins in October 2009 in hardcover format. A list of notable formats is as follows:

Mr Stink was Walliams' second children's book, after The Boy in the Dress, also illustrated by Quentin Blake.{{cite news |author=Richard Jinman |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/comedy/from-little-britain-to-mr-stink-david-walliams-is-a-man-of-many-talents-20171127-gzts0g.html |title=From Little Britain to Mr. Stink, why David Walliams is still breaking boundaries |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=29 November 2017 }} It was a best-seller and generally well received; the reviewer in The Daily Express called it "a gentle book with plenty of jokes about bottoms ... and a message about the put upon coming out on top", and in The Guardian a review of the stage musical called the book "a deliciously improbable romp"{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/jun/02/mr-stink-review |author=Lyn Gardner|title=Mr Stink – review |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2 June 2011 }} while a children's book reviewer called it "a really, really hilarious book, probably one of the best I have read in my life". However, the reviewer for Kirkus Reviews deemed most of the book "trite" and apparently a vehicle for the illustrations and for "a set of typecast characters".{{cite web |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/david-walliams/mr-stink/ |title=MR. STINK by David Walliams & illustrated by Quentin Blake |website=Kirkus Reviews |date=30 September 2010 }}

A stage musical adaptation of Mr Stink toured the UK in 2011.{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8757107/David-Walliams-busiest-man-in-showbusiness.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |title=David Walliams: busiest man in showbusiness |date=12 September 2011 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240320160553/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8757107/David-Walliams-busiest-man-in-showbusiness.html |archive-date=20 March 2024 |author=Martin Chilton}}

{{main|Mr Stink (film)}}

A 60-minute television film adaptation of Mr Stink premiered on BBC One on 23 December 2012.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2012/02/david-walliams-mr-stink.shtml|title=David Walliams' Mr Stink Comes to BBC One |author=Candice Lo |publisher=BBC |type=Comedy blog |date=21 February 2012}}{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/xmas12/bbc-one.html#section-13 |title=Media Centre – BBC One Programme Information |publisher=BBC |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121130041808/http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/mediapacks/xmas12/bbc-one.html |archive-date=2012-11-30}}{{cite news |author=David Walliams |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9760502/David-Walliams-How-I-created-a-Christmas-stink.html |title=David Walliams: How I created a Christmas stink |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |date=21 December 2012 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224013312/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9760502/David-Walliams-How-I-created-a-Christmas-stink.html |archive-date=24 December 2012 }} The television film was directed by Declan Lowney, produced by Jo Sargent and the BBC, executive-produced by Mark Freeland and written by Simon Nye and the book's author David Walliams. The main cast for Mr Stink includes Hugh Bonneville as the title character, Pudsey the Dog as the title character's dog Duchess, Nell Tiger Free as Chloe Crumb, Johnny Vegas as Chloe's father, Sheridan Smith as Chloe's mother, Isabella Blake-Thomas as Chloe's sister Anabelle, Walliams as Steve the British Prime Minister, Jemma Donovan as Chloe's nemesis Pippa and Harish Patel as Raj the Indian shopkeeper. It was the BBC's one and only television film to be filmed in stereoscopic 3D.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ppm6v Mr Stink 3D], BBC.

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Category:2009 British novels

Category:British children's novels

Category:British novels adapted into films

Category:HarperCollins books

Category:Novels by David Walliams

Category:2009 children's books