Awful Auntie: David Walliams makes £7m from children's books in 2014

The comedian's book 'Awful Auntie' sold more than half a million copies in the UK alone in 2014

David Walliams has signed up to play Tommy from Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence detective duo (Anthony Devlin/PA)

David Walliams made £7 million from sales of his children’s books in the past year, making him one of the UK’s best-selling children’s authors.

The comedian’s latest book Awful Auntie sold more than half a million copies alone, becoming the biggest children’s book of the UK in 2014.

Together his children’s books, which also included Gangsta Granny, Ratburger and Billionaire Boy, had a retail value of £7,060,788.

His popular titles saw him take four places in the top 50 bestsellers across all genres in the 12-month period, according to new figures published in trade magazine The Bookseller.

His sales were further buoyed by BBC adaptations of his books including The Boy In The Dress, which was shown over Christmas.

Over all Awful Auntie was the second biggest-selling title of the year with 553,921 copies, valued at £3,281,996 according to data compiled by Nielsen Bookscan.

The year's biggest book was The Fault In Our Stars by John Green which shifted more than 871,000 copies.

The late Lynda Bellingham's autobiography, There's Something I've Been Dying To Tell You became the second biggest hardback non-fiction title of 2014 after selling 330,625, putting it behind the latest edition of the Guinness World Records.

With additional reporting from the Press Association.

PA