Jacqueline Wilson

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"Jacky Wilson" redirects here. For the singer, see Jackie Wilson. For the boxer, see Jackie Wilson (boxer).
Jacqueline Wilson

Jacqueline Wilson at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature, September 2009
Born Jacqueline Aitken
17 December 1945 (1945-12-17) (age 63)
Bath, Somerset, United Kingdom
Occupation Author
Nationality British
Notable work(s) The Story of Tracy Beaker
Official website

Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, (born 17 December 1945) is an award-winning English author, known for her vast and diverse work in children's literature. Her novels have been adapted numerous times for television, and commonly deal with such challenging themes as adoption, divorce, and mental illness. Addressing these issues has made her controversial because of her young readership.

Contents

[edit] Life and education

Jacqueline Wilson was born Jacqueline Aitken in Bath, Somerset, in 1945. 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 Streatfeild, 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 two sides ie 11 pieces of paper long.[3] The book was called Meet the Maggots about a family with seven children. Although she was good at English, 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.

Apart from in English, Wilson did not do particularly well at school and had to re-take her 11+ exam in order to pass as she had a bad cold on the day (see Jacky Daydream). 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 named 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.[7][8]

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.[2] As the owner of some 15,000 books, Wilson had to buy the outbuilding at the bottom of her garden to house her library.[9] 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.[10] She swims fifty lengths each day before breakfast.[7] She likes all sorts of music, especially Queen and Freddie Mercury.[citation needed]

She is patron of the charity Momentum[11] in Kingston upon Thames, which aims to help children and the families of children undergoing treatment for cancer in Surrey.

[edit] Style

Wilson's stories focus on realism much more than most children's books, and have tackled such difficult themes as vagrancy, abuse, grief, divorce, foster care, mental illness and Her prose is often interspersed with ink drawings by former Roald Dahl collaborator Nick Sharratt, who also designs the covers for her books.

Wilson usually writes via a first person narrative, and has occasionally experimented with alternating viewpoints, such as in Secrets and The Lottie Project. Jacqueline is the proud foster mum to a little cat called Whisky.

[edit] Book sales

Over 25 million copies of Wilson's books have been sold in the UK alone.[12] 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.[13]

[edit] Awards and honors

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 and 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).

[edit] Professorial Fellow

In June 2008 Wilson was appointed professorial Fellow of Roehampton University.[14] She will be teaching modules on both the Children's Literature MA and the Creative Writing MA offered by the university.

[edit] Adaptations of her novels

The following books have been adapted for TV:

  • Cliffhanger (1995, Channel 4). Part of Look, See and Read, two part drama.
  • Double Act (2002, Channel 4). Starring twins Zoe and Chloe Tempest-Jones as Ruby and Garnet, with a special appearance by Jacqueline Wilson as the casting director at the auditions. This was a one-off 100 minute feature.
  • The Illustrated Mum (2003, Channel 4). Starring former EastEnders star Michelle Collins as Marigold Westward, Alice Connor as Dolphin Westward and Holly Grainger as Star Westward. This was a four-part miniseries but later shown as a full feature with no ad breaks. It was again repeated at Christmas 2004. Original air date: 5 December 2003.
  • Best Friends (2004, ITV). This was a six-part miniseries, but originally aired as one feature with a slightly different ending. Starring Chloe Smyth as Gemma and Poppy Rogers as Alice. Original air date: 3 December 2008.

To date, there have been no feature film adaptations of her novels.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Mark Spark

  • 1992 Mark Spark
  • 1993 Mark Spark in the Dark
  • 1993 Mark Spark returns

[edit] Freddy's Teddy

  • 1994 Freddy's Teddy
  • 1994 Teddy in the Garden
  • 1994 Teddy Goes Swimming
  • 1994 Come Back Teddy!
  • 1994 Teddy at the Fair

[edit] Tracy Beaker

[edit] Werepuppy

  • 1991 The Werepuppy
  • 1994 The Werepuppy on Holiday

[edit] Girls

[edit] Adventure Holiday

  • 1995 Cliffhanger
  • 1999 Buried Alive!

[edit] Non-series works

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pauli, Michelle (26 May 2005). "Children's laureateship goes to Jacqueline Wilson". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/may/26/jacquelinewilson. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 
  2. ^ a b "Jacqueline Wilson". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited. 22 July 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jun/10/jacquelinewilson. Retrieved 2008-08-29. 
  3. ^ Wilson, Jacqueline (24 February 2007). "'I was a girl for gritty realism'". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/feb/24/jacquelinewilson. Retrieved 2008-08-15. 
  4. ^ "Author profile". Jubilee Books. 2003. http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/authors/jacqui_wilson/jacqui_wilson.asp. 
  5. ^ "Author promotional interview". Jubilee Books. 2003. http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/authors/jacqui_wilson/jacqui_wilson_interview.asp. 
  6. ^ Author profile
  7. ^ a b c "Dame Jacqueline Wilson's nasty adult world". Telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group Limited. 7 March 2008. 
  8. ^ ‘WILSON, Jacqueline’, Who's Who 2008, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007 accessed 30 May 2008. "Born 17 Dec. 1945; d of late Harry Aitken and of Margaret Aitken (née Clibbons) who was known as Biddy; m 1965, William Millar Wilson (marr. diss. 2004); one d".
  9. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article1381142.ece Accessed 13th August 2008
  10. ^ The Guardian: Profile of Jacqueline Wilson Accessed 9th May 2008
  11. ^ Momentum
  12. ^ "Wilson Sells 20 Million" (PDF). Random House UK. 1 February 2005. http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/childrens/grownups/pressroom/releases/feb05/20million.pdf. 
  13. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/feb/08/news.richardlea Accessed 29th August 2008
  14. ^ http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/news/jackiewilson.html Accessed 6th August 2008

[edit] Further reading

  • Parker, Vic. (2003) All About Jacqueline Wilson (Oxford: Heinemann Library)

[edit] External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
Michael Morpurgo		 British Children's Laureate
2005–2007		 Succeeded by
Michael Rosen
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