Jacqueline Wilson
English novelist (born 1945)
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Through Children's literature, Adoption and Mental disorder
Early life
Jacqueline Aitken was born in Bath, Somerset, on 17 December 1945. Her father, Harry, was a civil servant and her mother, Margaret "Biddy" (née Clibbens), was an antiques dealer. Jacqueline particularly enjoyed books by Noel Streatfeild, as well as American classics such as Little Women and What Katy Did. At the age of nine, she wrote her first "book", "Meet the Maggots", which was 21 pages long. Wilson was given the nickname "Jacky Daydream" at school, which she later used as the title of her autobiography, telling of her life as a primary school-aged child.
Wilson attended Coombe Girls' School in Surrey and Carshalton Technical College. After leaving school at the age of 16, she began training as a secretary but then applied to work with the Dundee-based publishing company DC Thomson on a new girls' magazine, Jackie. Wilson has claimed the magazine was named after her.
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Career
When Wilson began to focus on writing, she completed several crime fiction novels before dedicating herself to children's books. At the age of 40, she took A-level English and earned a grade A. She had mixed success with about 40 books before the breakthrough to fame in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker, published by Doubleday.
As her children's novels frequently feature themes of adoption, divorce and mental illness, they tend to attract controversy, yet are well loved by children and adults alike.
University of Roehampton and charity work
In June 2013, Wilson was appointed a professorial fellow of the University of Roehampton, and a Pro-Chancellor. In February 2014, it was announced that she would be appointed Chancellor of the university (its honorary figurehead) from August 2014. She was reappointed in 2017 for a further three years. She teaches modules in both the Children's Literature and Creative Writing master's degree (MA) programmes offered by the university. She concluded her term as Chancellor in August 2020.
Wilson is patron of the charity Momentum in Kingston upon Thames, south London, which helps children undergoing treatment for cancer (and their families), and also a patron of the Letterbox Club, a BookTrust initiative. Until she moved away from Kingston-upon-Thames, she was a patron of the Friends of Richmond Park.
Reception
In The Big Read, a 2003 poll conducted by the BBC, four of Wilson's books were ranked among the 100 most popular books in the UK: The Story of Tracy Beaker (1991), Double Act (1995), Girls In Love (1997) and Vicky Angel (2000). Fourteen books by Wilson ranked in the top 200. In 2002, she replaced Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in Britain's libraries, a position she retained until being overtaken by James Patterson in 2008.
Accolades
Wilson has won many awards including the Smarties Prize and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a book award judged by a panel of British children's writers. The Illustrated Mum (1999) won the annual Guardian Prize and the annual British Book Award for Children's Book of the Year; it also made the 1999 Whitbread Awards shortlist. The Story of Tracy Beaker won the 2002 Blue Peter People's Choice Award and Girls in Tears was the Children's Book of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. Two of her books were "Highly Commended" runners-up for the annual Carnegie Medal: The Story of Tracy Beaker (1991) and Double Act (1995).
In the 2002 Birthday Honours, Wilson was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to Literacy in Schools", and from 2005 to 2007 she served as the fourth Children's Laureate. In that role, Wilson urged parents and carers to continue reading aloud to children long after they are able to read for themselves. She also campaigned to make more books available for blind people and campaigned against cutbacks in children's television 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, the University of Roehampton awarded her an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Letters) in recognition of her achievements in and on behalf of children's literature. She has also received honorary degrees from the University of Dundee, the University of Bath and Kingston University.
In the 2008 New Year Honours, Wilson was promoted to a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) "for services to Literature". In July 2012, Dame Jacqueline was also elected an honorary fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 2017, she received the Special Award at the BAFTA Children's Awards. In the 2025 New Year Honours, Wilson was promoted again, to a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) "for services to Literature".
For her lifetime contribution as a children's writer, Wilson was a UK nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014.
A lecture hall at Kingston University's Penrhyn Road campus has been named after her.
Personal life
Jacqueline began a relationship with printer Millar Wilson, whom she married in 1965 at the age of 19. Two years later they had a daughter, Emma. After three decades, her husband left her for another woman. They divorced in 2004.
In 2008, Wilson was diagnosed with heart failure, after which she had a "major heart surgery". Then in 2013, she was diagnosed with stage three kidney disease. Connected to a haemodialysis machine, she wrote her 100th book with just her left hand. Wilson later had a kidney transplant.
In April 2020, Wilson announced that she was in a same-sex relationship with bookshop owner Trish Beswick, to whom she dedicated a book. Wilson revealed that she had been living with Trish for 18 years. The couple live in East Sussex. In September 2024, she stated that she was delighted to be seen as a gay icon after coming out. "I'm very touched to be thought of as a gay icon, it's an absolute delight", she said after publishing her adult novel Think Again.