Dame Jacqueline Wilson, the beloved author, has just released her latest adult novel, Picture Imperfect, a sequel to the 1999 hit Illustrated Mum. The new book revisits Dolphin, the character from the original story, who is now 33 years old.
Readers are taken on a journey through Dolphin’s life, discovering how it has changed and yet remained remarkably similar in some ways. To mark the occasion, Dani Harmer (better known as Tracy Beaker!) and Dame Jacqueline held a conversation at HOME Theatre in Manchester.
During the event, Harmer asked numerous questions about the new release, leaving many authors in the audience stunned by one of Jacqueline’s responses.
The acclaimed author confessed that she had dreamt of becoming a writer since her primary school days. However, coming from a “council estate background,” her parents thought this might be an unattainable dream.
At the age of 17, Wilson moved to Scotland alone, armed only with her aspiration to become a writer. She landed a role as a junior journalist at Jackie Magazine, where she honed her writing skills.
She reminisced that back then, all you needed was a “bit of cheek” to get a chance to be a journalist, whereas today, you “need a degree”.
This early experience is why she claims she “never gets writer’s block,” jesting that if you’re a journalist and can’t write stories, you’d be “gone”.
Expressing gratitude for her initial career as a journalist, she stated that it equipped her with the ability to write effortlessly, never worrying that she’ll run out of things to say.
She humorously claimed to have been “possessed” by her characters during the writing process, thinking as they would.
At the event, attentive attendees picked up on a hint from Jacqueline Wilson that she and Tracy Beaker illustrator Nick Sharratt might team up again in the future.
Devoted followers of Jacqueline will have noticed that Nick no longer illustrates her books, and her two adult novels have entirely stopped featuring person-centric artwork.
She clarified that during the pandemic, everyone had to “please themselves”, taking care of their own well-being and livelihoods, which led to a shift in Nick’s priorities.
She expressed her “devastation,” but understood his need to concentrate on his own projects, including illustrating his own children’s books, despite their 30-year collaboration.
However, an idea sparked “on the spot” at the event could suggest a reunion between our childhood favourites is nearer than we anticipate.
In Picture Imperfect, Jacqueline painstakingly describes some of the tattoos Dolphin has created for people. She suggested that Nick could bring some of these designs to life, including dragons.
And for those with sharp recollections, The Illustrated Mum featured an image of Marigold and all her tattoos towards the end of the book, illustrated by none other than Nick.