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Dame Jacqueline Wilson
Dame Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, (born 17 December 1945) is an
English author of over 90 children's books and professorial fellow
of Roehampton University. Currently one of the bestselling authors
in the United Kingdom, her books have won a range of major awards
and have been adapted for television and stage.
Life and educationWilson was born Jacqueline Aitken in Bath, Somerset. Her father was a civil servant, her mother an antiques dealer.[1] Wilson spent most of her childhood in Kingston upon Thames, where she went to Latchmere Primary School. Wilson was an imaginative child and enjoyed reading and making up stories. She particularly enjoyed books by Noel Streatfield, as well as American classics like Little Women and What Katy Did.[2] Even as young as six and seven, Wilson knew that she wanted to be a writer and would fill Woolworths notebooks with stories of her imaginary games.
At the age of nine she wrote her first "novel" which was twenty pages long.[3] The book was called Meet the Maggots about a family with seven children. Although she was good at English, however, the young Wilson had no interest in maths and would often stare out of the window and use her imagination rather than paying attention to the class, leading her final year teacher at Latchmere to nickname her "Jacky Daydream". Wilson later used this nickname as the title of the first stage of her autobiography. My Secret Diary By Jacqueline Wilson from Amazon.co.uk
Apart from in English, Wilson did not do particularly well at school and had to re-take her 11+ exam in order to pass. After Latchmere, she moved on to Coombe Girls' School, which she still visits to this day. Kingston University has named the main hall at its Penrhyn Road campus "Jacqueline Wilson Hall" in recognition of her connections with Kingston upon Thames Having left school at sixteen, Wilson started training as a secretary but then applied to work with the Dundee-based publishing company DC Thomson on a new girls' magazine Jackie.[4] DC Thomson offered the 17 year old a job after she penned a piece on the horrors of teenage discos. Wilson therefore moved to Scotland. An urban myth that the magazine was named after her has been perpetuated by the author in promotional work even though this has been denied by those who were involved in the launch.[5] In Scotland, Wilson fell in love with a printer called William Millar Wilson. He then joined the police force and the couple moved south for his work, marrying in 1965 when Wilson was 19. Two years later, they had a daughter, Emma.[6] Wilson focused on her writing, initially writing a few crime fiction books before dedicating herself to writing for children. At the age of 40, she took A level English, passing with a grade A.[7] Wilson had mixed success with some forty books before rising to fame in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker. In 2004 Wilson's marriage was dissolved after her husband of three decades left her.[8][9] Wilson lives in a handsome Victorian villa in Kingston upon Thames. The house is filled with books as she remains a keen reader, getting through a book a week despite her hectic schedule. In her adult tastes, Wilson's favourite writers include Katherine Mansfield and Sylvia Plath.[10] As the owner of some 15,000 books, Wilson had to buy the outbuilding at the bottom of her garden to house her library.[11] She also surrounds herself with old-fashioned childhood objects such as a rocking horse and a number of antique dolls. Wilson also has a unique taste in clothes and jewellery. She is known for wearing black clothes and an array of large rings.[12] She swims fifty lengths each day before breakfast.[13] StyleWilson's books are realistic portrayal of modern British children facing problems in their daily lives, ranging from the death of a pet (The Cat Mummy) to divorce (The Suitcase Kid), homelessness (The Bed and Breakfast Star), abuse (Secrets), grief (Vicky Angel) and difficult subjects parents may refrain from talking about, such as homosexuality (Kiss). Her books are usually illustrated by Nick Sharratt, and Sharratt's ink drawings and colourful cover designs have come to be associated with her work. Her work also often has characters from her own stories appearing in her other books, such as in Dustbin Baby, Best Friends, and Cliffhanger. The majority of her books are written in the first person narrative, although some, such as Twin Trouble, are written in third person. One, the previously mentioned Secrets, is, though in first person, from the point of view of the two main characters, in alternative chapters, much like her other book The Lottie Project. Girls in Love, Best Friends, Double Act, The Illustrated Mum and The Story of Tracy Beaker have been adapted as popular TV series. Book salesOver 25 million copies of Wilson's books have been sold in the UK alone.[14] In a poll conducted by the BBC, The Big Read, four books by Jacqueline Wilson were voted in the top 100 most popular books in Britain: Double Act, Girls In Love, Vicky Angel, and The Story of Tracy Beaker. In the list of the UK's 200 favourite books there are 14 books by Jacqueline Wilson. In 2004 she replaced Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in Britain's libraries, a position she retained for four years until she was overtaken by James Patterson in 2008.[15] Awards
Wilson has won many awards, including the Smarties Prize, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award and the 1999 Children's Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the 1999 Whitbread Children's Book Award. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People's Choice Award. In June 2002, Jacqueline Wilson was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools, and from 2005 to 2007 she was the fourth Children's Laureate. In this role, Wilson urged writers to make more books available for the blind ad also campaigned against cutbacks in children's TV drama. In October 2005 she received an Honorary Degree from the University of Winchester in recognition of her achievements in and on behalf of children's literature. In July 2007 she received an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Letters) from Roehampton University in recognition of her achievements in and on behalf of children's literature. She is also the recipient of Honorary Degrees from the University of Dundee and Kingston University. In the New Year Honours 2008, Jacqueline Wilson was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). Professorial FellowIn June 2008 Wilson was appointed professorial Fellow of Roehampton University.[16] She will be teaching modules on both the Children's Literature MA and the Creative Writing MA offered by the university. Adaptations of her novelsThe following books have been adaptated for TV:
BibliographyMark Spark
Freddy's TeddyThese books were written to help teach younger children to read.
Tracy Beaker
Werepuppy
Girls
Adventure Holiday
Non-series works
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