Jacqueline Wilson: United Kingdom ⋆ Author

"When I was growing up children's books were bland and middle class, I wanted books with more bite, ones that showed what life was really like. So I decided to write them."

Jacqueline Wilson

One of the most successful authors in the world, Jacqueline Wilson has published over a hundred books that have sold more than twenty million copies and have been translated in to thirty languages. Her work, which most often focuses on the difficult issues that children face, has been widely adapted for radio, television, and the stage.

Born in 1945 in Bath, Wilson created stories from an early age, and her first job was with the girls' magazine Jackie. Although she wrote and published steadily, Wilson had only minor success until she published The Story of Tracy Beaker in 1991. Wilson's titular character is a girl living in a children's home who longs for a family. The novel is remarkable for the fresh colloquial style of Tracy's first-person narration, told through her journal. Tracy's narrative is both humorous and moving as Wilson negotiates between the sadness and anger the child holds and her irrepressible energy and optimism. The novel also marked the beginning of Wilson's collaboration with illustrator Nick Sharrat, who still designs her book covers and provides ink drawings to go along with her text. In a 2009 interview with Partnership for Children, Wilson notes that "Tracy Beaker is appalling badly behaved, but that is because she had a very rough start in life. … When I go to schools and ask children why they like her, they say, 'because she's naughty.' Then when I ask why she's naughty, they say, 'because she's sad.' I ask why she is sad, and the children say 'because she wants to see her mum,' or 'she doesn't have any friends.' I am thrilled to bits that they can see the reasons why Tracy is as she is." Wilson went on to write three sequels to The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Wilson's work has received wide recognition. In 2002, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire for service to literacy in schools, and she served as Children's Laureate from 2005 to 2007. In 2008, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the first children's author to be so named. Wilson's books have garnered many awards, including the Smarties Prize, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the British Books Awards Children's book of the Year, and the Blue Peter People's Choice Award. More importantly to Wilson, in 2003, UK children named her as their favorite writer, and for a number of years she was the most borrowed author from UK public libraries.