Tracy Beaker… mother!
Way back in 1991, a whole generation of girls ( and plenty of boys too) first encountered the ten- yearold Tracy Beaker, living in a care home and always getting into trouble. Now, 27 years and five books later, My Mum Tracy Beaker is the latest in the popular stories of Tracy, this time from the point of view of her daughter Jess. Jacqueline Wilson tells us what it was like to continue the story of Tracy after all these years
“I first wrote about Tracy Beaker 27 years ago when she was a little girl aged 10, stuck in a children’s home. Now, it’s like Tracy has aged in real time and is in her 30s and she has her own 10-year-old, Jess. I wrote it because I couldn’t help being curious about what Tracy would be like when she grew up and what sort of mum she would be. I was determined that she was going to be a great mum, but not necessarily a reformed character. She’s still got a lot of what people nowadays would call ‘anger issues,’ but she never loses her temper with her Jess. She makes Jess cringe at times, but show me a mother who doesn’t. For really loyal fans, who grew up reading about Tracy or watching the TV series, I thought they might enjoy seeing how she’s turned out as an adult. I’ve had a lot of delighted 20-somethings telling me how much fun it was to revisit this character, so I’m really pleased to have written it. I’ve always wanted to write about Tracy because she’s such an interesting character and I also use her at some of the talks I do in schools or libraries. If some of the kids are a bit like ‘Ugh, I don’t like reading’, or some of the boys are like ‘Ugh, Jacqueline Wilson, is she going to be too girly?’ then Tracy is good to talk about because she is so mischievous, so I think boys like her just as much as girls. I’ve always wanted to come back to her – should I do a book next called ‘Tracy Beaker’s Midlife Crisis’?
I can understand people being critical of me leaving Tracy in a small flat in a rough estate, because they took Tracy to their hearts and wanted her to be rich and famous and successful and of course, there are some people who have grown up in foster care and have made huge successful careers. However, the majority don’t. In the book, I’m sort of having my cake and eating it, because Tracy finds herself living in a huge big mansion, everything she’s always wanted, but maybe she finds out it’s not actually what will make her happy or more importantly, make her daughter happy. .
Also – and I don’t know about house prices in Ireland – but certainly here in England, it would be almost impossible for any single mum to afford her own house anywhere, no matter what job they did, so I’m just being realistic, more than anything else.
I feel if you aren’t realistic, you’re sort of selling out – yes it’s good to be aspirational, but you are saying to everyone that yes, they too can do this, but only a very few will actually become rich and famous. People reading this might say, ‘Well, it’s alright for her, and certainly I’m very comfortably off now, but I was brought up in a council estate and for the first 30 years of my life, before my books started selling well, I was very poor. It’s less worrying having money, but I don’t think it necessarily makes you any happier. Not that I would particularly like to go back to being very poor and worrying how I’m going to last until payday, but I do know what it’s like.”