Best-selling children's author Jacqueline Wilson is visiting Nottingham later this week to meet her young fans. She chats to Lynette Pinchess about the secret of her success.
AUTHOR Jacqueline Wilson receives the kind of welcome reserved for pop idols.
"Nothing warms the cockles of my heart more than standing on a stage or arriving at a book shop to have a crowd of children spontaneously cheering. You feel like royalty or a rock star.
"People at my age sometimes feel sidelined or invisible so to be having this in my 60s is fantastic," said the children's favourite.
As her fans know, Dame Jacqueline, who is visiting Nottingham on Saturday, isn't one to shy away from a controversial subject.
She has tackled abuse, grief, divorce and mental illness in her novels – a sign that young readers are as keen to pore over gritty realism as they are to lose themselves in fanciful tales of vampires and wizards.
Jacqueline has sold a mighty 30 million copies of her books in the UK alone and her work has been translated into 34 different languages.
At the sell-out talk, organised by Waterstones at the Broadway Cinema, Jacqueline will be telling her 330-strong audience about her childhood, career and latest novels.
When she was 17, Jacqueline's love of writing led to a job on popular 1970s magazine Jackie – which was named after her.
Even though her young fans might not have heard of the mag, mums in the crowd certainly will have.
"I wrote amusing articles about having a boyfriend or not having a boyfriend and other teenage issues," said Jacqueline, speaking en route to Preston on the first day of her tour.
She went on to write 40 books – including six crime novels aimed at adults – before hitting the big time with Tracy Beaker and the story of her life in care.
As every fan knows, the book, first published 20 years ago, was turned into an award-wining TV series for CBBC which made Tracy Beaker and her creator household names.
"It was the first time I worked with the lovely illustrator Nick Sharratt so the books looked great and I deliberately adopted a more approachable colloquial style of writing. It hit a new audience," says Jacqueline.
More success followed with titles including Girls in Love, Dustbin Baby, Bad Girls, Kiss and the autobiographical Jacky Daydream.
Her fans, whose ages range from 7 to 15, say she writes from the heart and her stories make them laugh and cry.
"I get many many letters, some very moving. Each month on the fan club website there are at least 1,000 emails from young people and many tell me how they have related to this or that book. I feel very touched and moved that they confide in me.
"I am not writing deliberately like an advice column. I am writing entertaining, amusing reads but if they turn out to be therapeutic, that is good," she says.
Her novel Bad Girls prompted feedback from readers telling her how the book has helped them cope with bullying while Best Friends proved a comfort for youngsters who have experienced the devastation of their closest pal moving away.
Even though she is in her 60s and doesn't have any grandchildren, Jacqueline is clearly in touch with the younger generation and their likes and dislikes.
But you will never find her writing about the latest gadget or favourite celebrities.
"I don't describe specific bands or latest fashions because by the time the book was published they would be out of date."
And that would have her readers rolling their eyes.
For her latest novel Lily Alone, the theme is home alone kids. Lily is left in charge of her siblings after her mum goes on holiday with her new boyfriend.
Among Jacqueline's many awards and accolades is the honour of being the most borrowed author of the past decade.
As someone who grew up relying on libraries for borrowing books herself, the former Children's Laureate is strongly against council cutbacks which threaten them with closure.
"Currently many authors are very concerned and up in arms about the possible closure of so many libraries. We are trying very hard to make councils see everyone knows lots of cuts have to be made but closing down libraries is such a terrible thing to do to our children," she says.
As a child Jacqueline borrowed more books than she bought – but she has certainly made up for it since.
An outbuilding at her home in Kingston upon Thames has been turned into a library accommodating at least 15,000 books.
"It's my extravagance – I can't stop buying books," she confesses.
Among her favourites are Katherine Mansfield's short stories and David Lodge, who shares the same publisher as Jacqueline.
"I have an early proof of his new novel. I am one of his number one fans so I will be settling into that with great enjoyment on this book tour."
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