Author of the week Dame Jacqueline Wilson
Bestselling children’s author on why pupils need to be ‘gently pushed forward’ to lift literacy levels
Tracy Beaker creator and acclaimed children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has been contemplating the worth of children’s books written by celebrities.
From Geri Halliwell and Ricky Gervais to Clare Balding, David Baddiel, Fearne Cotton, Paul McCartney and Whoopi Goldberg, many stars have written for children. Some, like David Walliams, have been more successful than others.
“I think some are very good. I think others aren’t at all good,” says Wilson, the former Children’s Laureate and author of more than 100 children’s books.
Her sentiments echo those of Anthony Horowitz who writes the teen spy Alex Rider series. He told the Radio Times last year: “I take the view any book a child reads is a good thing, but it does rankle that shelves and bestseller lists are now jam-packed with books that don’t lift the level of literacy, but simply entertain.”
Wilson adds: “I think some books are there not for a good long read and a lasting treasuring, but just to amuse then disappear. I don’t see much harm in it, but it’s like giving kids lots of sweets, not a substantial meal.”
She says she’s only read the first of David Walliams’ books.
“It did its job and I think he’s a very shrewd man. If you have an eight-year-old boy, you know he can have a jolly good chuckle. But I was horrified when a survey of Key Stage Three children ( from 11 to 14) in secondary schools showed they were their favourites too – because he’s not writing for young teenagers but they’re still reading his books. I suppose it shows they appeal, but I think children should be gently pushed forward.”
At 78 years old, Wilson – upbeat, witty and forward-thinking – remains prolific, having written three books a year for the past few years.
She is famed for children’s stories with real-life gritty backdrops, whether it be separated parents, illness, unemployment or other difficulties youngsters face.
Four years ago, she wrote a same-sex fictional love story, Love Frankie, aimed at children aged 10 and over, which drew attention to her own personal circumstances. She has been with long-term partner, Trish, for more than 20 years and they live in the Sussex countryside.
Wilson was married for 38 years before separating from husband Millar Wilson. She has said she’s not sure if she was gay when she married him at 19. They divorced in 2004, and have a daughter, Emma.
The author herself grew up in a fractious environment with warring parents. She recalls: “I wasn’t beaten or starved, but there were rows or terrible sulks. You never knew what was happening. They forever wanted to split up, but my mum hadn’t enough to support me.
“I left home at 17, which was a relief in a way because growing up with rows is unsettling – and if you’re a child sometimes you can’t help blaming yourself, which is perhaps why I try to write nowadays in a kind of protective way of any kids going through similar scenarios.”
Her latest novel, The Girl Who Wasn’t There, sees a family move into a tower – conjured up from Wilson’s fascination with follies – after the pandemic. But it turns out to be not as much of a fairy tale as they had hoped as the building is dilapidated, Dad is unemployed after his restaurant folded and there’s spookiness as the youngest daughter starts talking to an imaginary friend.
Wilson shows no signs of slowing down, but health issues have made her worry a little about getting older.
“I am fit and I swim, but I’ve had illnesses that could have been fatal. My heart failed, my kidneys failed, I had a kidney transplant about 10 years ago,” she says.
“I’ve gone through all those biggies and you’ve a slight feeling you’re on borrowed time. But it’s more sensible to think of this day, this moment, rather than the future.”
She recalls a group of children asking her if she’d like to race into the future.
“I said, ‘No. I’m hanging on here.’ It’s a thing you learn to live with.”
But her illnesses haven’t changed the way she lives.
“Maybe I should have rested more. You inevitably slow down a bit. I’m not so quick to jump up and do this and do that. So I try to take it easy. I am blessed with a lovely partner. I get breakfast in bed, which is a huge luxury. I take pills in the morning and evening, for my heart and kidney. When Covid started I was classified as extremely clinically vulnerable.”
But she takes her two dogs for long walks daily, swims, eats healthily and continues to lose herself in writing.
“Friends and family very sweetly have said, ‘Look, you’ve got a nice house, some savings, you’ve had a lovely career. Why don’t you slow down?’ But I can’t ever take more than a few days off writing.
“I have to have something to think about when awake in the night. It’s a method of lulling me back to sleep.
“It’s a wonderful thing to be leading two lives – your real life and the fictional one you’re inventing.”
She has no plans for a big 80th birthday. “It would probably kill me off,” she says, laughing.
But she feels she is done with Tracy Beaker.
“I wrote about her as an adult and through the eyes of her daughter, Jess. Out of that book there were several lovely series about the grown-up Tracy.
“People might feel, ‘You’ve told her story. You told her daughter’s story’. Tracy has started fostering a young person. I think she’s come full circle.”
■ The Girl who Wasn’t There by Jacqueline Wilson is out now, published by Puffin, price £11.99.