Celebrated children’s author, David Walliams has said he hopes that his meeting with Fermanagh school children will inspire a ripple effect for budding writers.

“Bringing all the different schools together, hopefully, I always think if you do events like this, maybe one day, one person, taps you on the shoulder and says ‘You came to my school, ten years ago, twenty years ago and now I’m doing the thing I always wanted to do or I am writing, I will be happy.

“You can’t think it will be everybody but if there is one person, when you’re a kid you do remember if you meet a public figure, when I was a kid I got people’s autographs and I get that there is a ripple effect.”

Speaking about his new book, Blunders, set in a country house not unlike Crom Castle where he spoke to The Impartial Reporter as he signed books for Fermanagh school children, Mr Walliams said: “I like stories set in one place, I always think something like an old country house is big enough and small enough for a story.

“I just wanted to write a book that just didn’t have a message and it was just funny, I was in the mood for something just about the humour more than anything

“The first thought was I wanted to do a silent comedy in book form but I couldn’t quite do that as I needed the characters to speak.

“My thinking was I wanted to have as many visual jokes as possible like it’s an episode of Mr. Bean.”

Mr. Walliams had just finished speaking to local school children and said: “It is great to connect with these kids and people who are your readers, when you write books it’s a very solitary and you get to now come out and read to the kids.”