HarperCollins has stopped printing David Walliams’s books and will phase out existing bookshop stock, nine months after deciding not to publish any new titles by him. The move follows allegations that he harassed young women employed by the publisher, which he denies; it ends the company’s relationship with an author whose children’s books have sold more than 60 million copies.

Walliams, whose real name is David Edward Williams, has reportedly generated about £100 million in book sales through titles including The Boy in the Dress, Gangsta Granny and Fing. The former Little Britain actor and Britain’s Got Talent judge also left the ITV programme in 2022 after apologising for disrespectful comments about contestants; HarperCollins said it takes employee wellbeing seriously, while Walliams’s representatives said he was not told the allegations or given an opportunity to respond.