Latest news with #TheIllustratedMum
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Jacqueline Wilson: 'I don't want to return to Tracy Beaker as an adult because we'd learn about her sex life'
Celebrated children's author Jacqueline Wilson has said she "would feel very wary" of writing about her beloved character Tracy Beaker in an adult book because "it would seem inappropriate [as] we would learn about Tracy's sex life".Dame Jacqueline has touched on Beaker as an adult through the eyes of the character's daughter Jess in her children's books My Mum Tracy Beaker and The Beaker Girls. But having recently announced Picture Imperfect, an adult sequel to her 1999 children's book, The Illustrated Mum, it doesn't look like an adult book based on Beaker will follow suit."I don't want to go there. That's my girl [Tracy] who I made everything happen for," Dame Jacqueline told an audience at the Hay Festival. She added that she had said "no, I would never do that" before, when planning future writing projects, but noted she had sometimes changed her mind, "so who knows?"Dame Jaqueline's Tracy Beaker books were made into a popular TV series for the BBC. Beaker was a young girl who was placed in a children's home due to neglect and domestic violence. The author said that she did generally enjoy returning to some of her characters once they had grown up: "I've been thinking about it over the years, because I've invented so many different girls, and it's interesting to think what happens to them when you finish writing about them."Dame Jacqueline recently brought back Ellie, Magda and Nadine in her adult fiction book Think Again, a continuation of her Girls in Love novels. The much-loved author, who was made a dame in 2008, is known for writing about difficult and dark issues in accessible of her books, some of which explore topics such as suicide, mental health and divorce, are aimed at children aged between seven and foray into adult books has brought a new kind of satisfaction, she explained."I'm an obsessive writer but worry people think I'm churning that [same] stuff out again, so it's lovely to challenge yourself."She said she enjoyed seeing many of her audiences come along to see her at events "because they read my books as children"."The children are still keen but it's the mums that get really excited! It's like a sort of farewell tour that hopefully will go on." Writing in pyjamas Despite having written more than 100 books, Dame Jacqueline said she still felt anxious when writing."Always about halfway through a book, even now, you think 'I've got the hang of this with all these books that I've written', but I get that terrible doubt and worry about it and and it's just something you learn. Work through it, get to the end."One habit that must help is that she writes in her pyjamas in bed, once she's fed the cat and let the dogs out first thing in the morning. "That's the magic time, and it just works for me. Apparently Michael Morpurgo does exactly the same!"But it wasn't always so easy to pick and choose her times to Jacqueline said: "I was idiotic enough to be married at 19 and had a child at 21."My husband wasn't a terrible man in the slightest but it was an age [the 1960s] when men went out and did, and women did everything else."She said she "adored" her baby daughter but she would only sleep for two hours at a time. When she did doze off, Dame Jacqueline said she wanted to sleep too but used the short window available to write. She got a little more time when her daughter Emma went to nursery in the mornings."It gave me an urgency. I'd write for two hours and then concentrate on her in the afternoon." Now the writing challenges are different, with the threat of AI looming over the writing profession. But Wilson doesn't seem too worried about it."I take comfort from the fact that my partner's brother-in-law... asked some AI thing to write a story for his daughter in the style of Jacqueline Wilson, and then he sent it to us. And either I've been blissfully unaware and I've been writing garbage or.... it was just unbearably awful."
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jacqueline Wilson ‘very wary' of writing adult Tracy Beaker novel
Jacqueline Wilson has said she would feel 'very wary' about writing an adult novel about Tracy Beaker 'because it would seem inappropriate that we would learn about her sex life'. Last year, the beloved children's author published her first novel for adults since the 1970s. Think Again was a sequel to her Girls series for teenagers, which was published between 1998 and 2002, and revisited its protagonist Ellie, who in the new book is turning 40. It became a bestseller, resonating with fans who grew up with Ellie and her friends. Wilson has since announced a second adult sequel, due out in August, this time revisiting her 1999 children's book The Illustrated Mum. Writing these sequels 'gives me pleasure', Wilson told the audience at the Hay festival in Powys. But though she plans to write more, she said Beaker, her most famous character, is unlikely to be a subject. Beaker, largely thanks to the popular TV series based on Wilson's novels, has become much bigger than just the character she created, the author explained. The feisty, curly haired heroine means a great deal to Wilson personally, too: 'She's my girl that made everything happen for me.' So while she was happy to write about Beaker as an adult from the perspective of her daughter, Jess, writing about a grownup Tracy does not appeal, as it would involve writing about her sex life. 'I don't want to go there,' the 79-year-old author said. However, Wilson did add that over the years she has learned not to say, 'I would never do that.' In two or three years' time – 'if I've got them!' the author joked – 'something or other' might make her think, 'ah, I could do it this way,' she said. 'So who knows?' Wilson said she does know which of her former characters is next to be revisited in an adult book, but she hasn't started writing it yet, and her publishers won't allow her to say who it is. However, she said she hopes the book will be out next year, 'and I hope it will be a good choice'. The writer acknowledged that some people might think she is only taking on these adult projects because she 'can't get any new ideas', but she insisted that is not true. 'But I do like to go back,' she said. 'It's a kind of literary Friends Reunited.' During the Hay event, Wilson also expressed worry that 12 of her novels have apparently been used to train AI models. 'Authors are completely unable to monitor what happens,' and 'certainly don't give permission for that,' she said. However, the author 'takes comfort' from finding that, when her partner's brother-in-law asked AI to write a story for his daughter in the style of Jacqueline Wilson, 'it was just unbearably awful. So I hope anyone who likes my books could not be happy with an AI version.'
BBC News
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
World Book Day: Jacqueline Wilson announces adult sequel to Illustrated Mum
Author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has announced Picture Imperfect, an adult sequel to her 1999 children's book, The Illustrated novel, released on 28 August, will reunite readers with Dolphin and Star, who spent their childhood dealing with their mother, Marigold's bipolar 33, is struggling to move on. Living in a bedsit, working at a tattoo parlour and often collecting her mother from the police station, she hopes romance will save her but is torn between stable Lee and his daughter Ava or a fling with actor Joel. Star, meanwhile, works as a doctor, in Scotland with her told Scott Mills on BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show, on Thursday, World Book Day, she "can't wait" for reactions to the new book. The much-loved author, 79, made a dame in 2008, is known for writing about difficult and dark issues in accessible of her books, some of which explore suicide, mental health and domestic violence, are aimed at children aged between seven and Picture Imperfect follows Wilson's first novel for adults since the 1970s, Think Again, released last year as a sequel to the Girls series. It became the bestselling adult debut hardback of 2024, according to The Bookseller."I discovered what fun it is... it's like a party game - thinking about your childhood favourites that you wrote about," she told Mills of writing for adults. "And one of the books that people have mentioned over the years is The Illustrated Mum". The original book, named after Marigold's wealth of tattoos, from which Dolphin and Star are named, won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in was adapted into a film staring Michelle Collins in Picture Imperfect on social media, Wilson unveiled a statue of herself covered in tattoos, in Brighton, near her Sussex home, which is set to be moved to a Waterstones in the author, who will also visit seaside towns across the country for the release of her children's book The Seaside Sleepover next month, told Mills she planned to go in and stroke the statue occasionally. The Illustrated Mum is Wilson's second-highest-selling children's novel in paperback in the UK, according to publisher Penguin Random House, topped only by her children's classic Tracy also shared messages from fans - including Dani Harmer, who starred in the 2000s BBC TV adaptation of Tracy Beaker, and its various daughter Avery Bell, eight, was Wilson's "new biggest fan", she revealed "It has just been an absolute joy to re-read all of your books with her," Harmer said. "We... now discuss them as well and go over all of the amazing topics that you cover in your books."Asked by Harmer about the prospect of more Beaker books, Wilson said an adult sequel would be "quite an idea"."It's not coming this year - but who knows?" she added.
