Who Cares Trust

"A few adults get upset with the ‘attitude’ in my books. By that I mean that even though the adults in my books try to do the right thing for the children, they sometimes get things wrong. Adults find that hard to read, but it’s realistic."

Name?

Jacqueline Wilson. Absolutely no middle name. I always felt irritated by that as a child. Everyone used to tell each other their middle names, or there were playground games where you used your middle name, I always felt hard done by not to have one. Maybe I should have invented one.

Were you named after anyone famous?

No, I was originally going to be called Harriet, which would have been much better. I like the name Harriet. That was because my father was called Harry and my mother was called Margaret, so Harriet felt like a nice combination of their names. As it happened, even at that early stage in their relationship when they had only been married a year, I think they had started to cordially hate each other. Therefore they didn’t think they should saddle me with a combination of their names.That being said, I don’t know why they chose Jacqueline. I don’t think it’s a great name but there we go. I’m stuck with it now.

Not only are you stuck with it, so is a magazine. That’s assuming that it’s true that Jackie magazine is named after you?

So I like to think. I did contribute articles to the magazine before it got published. When they were choosing a name for the magazine, the two guys up at DC Thomson in Dundee who were in charge told me that they were going to call it Jackie after me. So I was quite touched and pleased.Everyone remembers Jackie in its heyday in the late 1970s, whereas it actually started in the mid-1960s. But if people think I am part of the whole late 1970s thing, that’s fine! It takes years off my age.

Date of birth?

December 17, 1945.

What are you most famous for?

Writing children’s books

What would you like to be most famous for?

I can’t think of anything I would rather do than write children’s books!

What’s your guilty pleasure?

Reading in bed in the mornings.

What’s your most embarrassing moment?

My first big, posh dance. I was wearing borrowed high heels and fell flat on my face on the dancefloor. I was 14 or 15. It was awful.

Why did you decide to write children’s fiction?

I had written other stuff. I wrote some crime fiction for adults, but I always loved the idea of writing for children. I’ve always been interested in children’s fiction.When I was growing up children’s books were bland and middle class, I wanted books with more bite, ones that showed what life was really like. So decided to write them.

Which other children’s author would you most like to be?

I’m not quite sure. I don’t think I am the greatest or anything, but I don’t think I would like to be anyone else.

How does it feel to be famous?

Well, it’s very odd. I think I am in a very lucky position because I am not so well known – like a footballer, movie star or rock star – that I can’t have a perfectly ordinary life, going out, shopping at Sainsbury’s, doing all the ordinary things that everyone does. And yet, anyone who has children or is a child themselves will know who I am or know my books. So it’s very touching to be stopped in the street and have some lovely child tell me how much they like my books and could they have my autograph and things like that.In other words, I feel I’ve got the best of both worlds. I’m not so famous that I can’t lead a happy private life and do the usual things that everyone does, but also I am well known enough that people are extremely nice to me.

Do you know anything about children in care?

I’d like to think so. I wrote Tracy Beaker 18 years ago, since then I’ve been involved with many looked after children; doing awards ceremonies and reading schemes. I’ve had very touching letters and met children at book signings who have said Tracy Beaker made it cool to live in a children’s home. Anything that helps kids feel their way of life is something their classmates think is cool –even if that’s only a little bit of the story – is fantastic.

Why did you decide to focus on children in care?

I think it’s because I’m interested in children and what their lives are like. I just find it interesting when children have to go through quite sad and worrying times and how they then deal with those difficulties.

What do you like best: the world you write about or the real world?

Oh. That’s difficult, and an interesting question. I think the two different worlds overlap so I think I should say that I like both equally.

Which elements of the real world would you like to lose and have replaced by the world you create?

In my books there is quite a lot of nastiness and bullying and teasing, but in the real world there’s far worse things going on. I think it’s that extra element of cruelty that is just horrible.

It seems that adults tend to complain about the content of your books, while young people have no problem with what you write.

A few adults get upset with the ‘attitude’ in my books. By that I mean that even though the adults in my books try to do the right thing for the children, they sometimes get things wrong. Adults find that hard to read, but it’s realistic. As much as parents can love you, they sometimes let you down. Nowhere is that more apparent than for children in care. These young people have been let down by adults – it’s a simple fact.I try in all cases to make my books realistic, and I’m not frightened of dealing with controversial subjects.

I sometimes have sad things happen in my books, but I do not go out of my way to shock anyone and I certainly wouldn’t want to frighten or depress a child. I think young people are far better at dealing with these things and processing and understanding supposedly difficult or complex subjects. Part of the problem is that many parents or carers grew up as part of a different generation where perhaps certain things weren’t talked about as openly as they are today.

Is there a particular age of reader that you are aiming at?

Anything that goes into my books certainly should be suitable for most ages. The trouble is that you can’t tell which individual child is going to read your stories, and I don’t know how certain things might upset or affect that child. That’s why we try really hard – on the cover and in the blurb on the back – to make it clear what the book contains, and whether it might be more suitable for certain ages.

I sometimes see people buying one of my books for their six-year-old child and I have to say that I don’t think it’s suitable for that age. The mother will often say, 'but she’s a very good reader' and I have to point out that wasn’t really the problem. It’s not about how good a reader these children are, it’s about how well they can deal with, and understand, the issues.In other words, there isn’t one specific age when people can read my books, it really depends on the child in question.

What’s next for Jacqueline Wilson?

An autobiography has just come out, called My Secret Diary. It’s based on an actual diary I kept when I was 14 so I’m being very brave opening it up to the public. It talks about my best friend, my boyfriend, all the books I read, all the stories I was writing. I think I took myself a little too seriously! When you’re 14 everyone else seems cooler, better looking and more successful. I wanted to show that everyone has problems and worries. Every 14-year-old has fits of madness when they see a boy on a bus and develop a crush even though they know nothing about that person.

What’s your favourite:

Film

Little Miss Sunshine. It is blackly comic.

TV Programme

Masterchef, even though I don’t cook.

Dancing On Ice, despite the fact I don’t skate. I also love ER. It’s the last series but I was there from the beginning.

Book

The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath

Tell us one thing that you’ve never revealed in an interview before?

Once, in a teashop in Brighton, I couldn’t decide which of the wonderful cakes I wanted to eat. I also wanted cinnamon toast. So, I had cinnamon toast, then a cream doughnut, then a meringue. And I wasn’t sick!