THE CREATOR OF TRACY BEAKER

Her children’s books have attracted controversy for their grown-up subject matter, but bestselling author Jacqueline Wilson feels that her fiction serves a real purpose, as she told Kathryn Tye ahead of an appearance in Kent

She has sold more than 35 million books, held the position of children’s laureate and been honoured as a dame. But children’s author Jacqueline Wilson isn’t content to rest on her laurels. More than four decades after her first novel was published, the 67-year-old is still working as hard as ever, currently touring the country to promote her latest work, Emerald Star, the third in her series about young Victorian heroine Hetty Feather. Jacqueline said: “When you’re a children’s author, it’s part of the package to go out and meet your readers. Lots of people become writers as they like to shut themselves away, but it has become so much part of my life that I enjoy it as much as writing. “As a child, I liked to be asked to read aloud at school, so there was always a little part of me that wanted to perform.” In addition to discussing her latest book on her tour, Jacqueline plans to talk about her other novels, including Tracy Beaker, the book that propelled her to the big time when it was published in 1991. She said: “I have been a writer all my life, working as a journalist on a teen magazine from the age of 17, then as a freelancer from the age of 19. I was 22 when my first adult crime fiction novel was published, but I knew I wanted to write for children, so I decided to dedicate myself to that. “I wrote for children for a long time, but my breakthrough was Tracy Beaker. That was a huge hit.” Tracy is a 10-year-old placed in a residential care home nicknamed ‘The Dumping Ground’. She has behavioural problems because she feels unloved, dark subject matter typical of Jacqueline’s works, which address topics such as abuse, grief and divorce. Jacqueline added: “When I was growing up in the 1950s, children’s books never dealt with uncomfortable things like parents not getting on, or being teased at school. “So I thought perhaps I could write about these things. My books might deal with very complex issues, but there is always a lot of humour and often a happy ending. “I don’t want to depress the nation’s

children. My main aim is to write a good story and get them to enjoy reading by amusing and entertaining them.” It was Jacqueline’s tireless efforts to encourage children to read that resulted in her receiving an OBE in 2002, then being made a dame in 2008. The mum-of-one said: “I was very surprised and touched, and felt very pleased for all the authors who trek around schools and try to promote reading. “It is nice that hard work pays off. Reading was always my greatest pleasure and still is, but so many children grow up now in a house full of technology but no books. “I do my best to get the children reading.”

‘I don’t want to depress the nation’s children. My main aim is to write a good story and get them to enjoy reading by amusing and entertaining them.’