''Mr Stink'' is a children's book written by David Walliams and illustrated by

Quentin Blake Sir Quentin Saxby Blake (born 16 December 1932) is an English cartoonist, caricaturist, illustrator and children's writer. He has illustrated over 300 books, including 18 written by Roald Dahl, which are among his most popular works. For his l ...

, first published in the United Kingdom in 2009 by HarperCollins. It was adapted into a 2011 stage musical and a 2012 television film broadcast by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Plot

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, " ick 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.

Publication and reception

''Mr Stink'' was first published by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

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

. It was a best-seller and generally well received; the reviewer in ''

The Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' a review of the stage musical called the book "a deliciously improbable romp" 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 ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' deemed most of the book "trite" and apparently a vehicle for the illustrations and for "a set of typecast characters".

Adaptations

Stage musical adaptation

A stage musical adaptation of ''Mr Stink'' toured the UK in 2011.

Television film adaptation

A 60-minute television film adaptation of ''Mr Stink'' premiered on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

on 23 December 2012. The television film was directed by Declan Lowney, produced by Jo Sargent and the

, executive-produced by Mark Freeland and written by

Simon Nye Simon Nye (born 29 July 1958) is an English screenwriter, best known for television comedy. He wrote the hit British sitcom, sitcom ''Men Behaving Badly'', and all of the four ITV Pantos. He co-wrote the 2006 film ''Flushed Away'', created an ad ...

and the book's author David Walliams. The main cast for ''Mr Stink'' includes

Hugh Bonneville Hugh Richard Bonniwell Williams (born 10 November 1963), known professionally as Hugh Bonneville, is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, in the ITV historical drama series ''Downton Abbey'' from ...

as the title character, Pudsey the Dog as the title character's dog Duchess, Nell Tiger Free as Chloe Crumb,

Johnny Vegas Michael Joseph Pennington (born 5 September 1970), better known as Johnny Vegas, is an English actor, comedian, director and writer. He is known for his thick Lancashire accent, husky voice, angry comedic rants, and use of surreal humour. Ve ...

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.Mr Stink 3D
BBC.

References

{{Authority control 2009 British novels British children's novels British novels adapted into films HarperCollins books Novels by David Walliams 2009 children's books