An Afternoon with Jacqueline Wilson

The award-winning and bestselling author, Jacqueline Wilson will discuss her career and brand new book, Love Frankie.

There will be no book signing after the talk but there will be an opportunity for children to ask questions.

Copies of Jaqueline Wilson’s books, including Love Frankie (suitable for 10+) will be available to purchase from Waterstones on the day.

This is a 3+ event, where children must be three years or above to attend. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a parent/career.

Doors open at 1pm and The Glee Club bar will be open for pre-event refreshments.

Former Children’s Laureate Jacqueline Wilson first shot to fame with her Tracy Beaker stories and since then has gone on to write more than a hundred books, mostly for children, including popular stand-alone stories such as The Illustrated Mum and Dustbin Baby as well as her popular series for teenagers beginning with Girls in Love.

She started her writing career unusually early, writing her first full-length story at the age of nine and being employed as a columnist for Jackie magazine at just 17. Her first teacher called her ‘Jacky Daydream’ because of her propensity to stare out of the window, never one to overlook potential inspiration; Wilson later took the name as the title for her own autobiography.

From her earliest novels, Jacqueline Wilson has never been afraid to challenge the prevailing wisdom that books for children should avoid difficult issues. Her breakthrough novel, The Story of Tracey Beaker, features a girl in residential care who makes up stories to make life more bearable and it went on to form the basis of a successful series which was later televised.

Since then Wilson’s novels have only grown in popularity (sales of her books have now overtaken 35 million copies in the UK) despite (or perhaps because) of their tackling of some pretty tough scenarios.

Her subject matter has ranged across a gamut covering death, depression, tattoos, alcoholism, physical abuse and divorce, in novels for children of all ages from books like The Monster Storyteller for younger readers through to books for young teenagers such as Kiss which tackles issues of sexuality, My Sister Jodie which looks at sibling rivalry and her popular Girls series.

Wilson has been criticised for being so frank in her treatment of contemporary social issues but she is sceptical about the need to hide difficult things from children, describing it as impossible ‘to protect children from the realities of life; you only have to eavesdrop on a junior school playground to know that children know precisely what’s going on’.