Dame Jacqueline Wilson (born 17 December 1945) is an English novelist known for children’s books that deal with realistic subjects such as adoption, abuse and divorce. She has written more than 100 books since 1969, including “The Story of Tracy Beaker”, “Double Act” and the Hetty Feather series.
Wilson was born Jacqueline Aitken in Bath and went to Coombe Girls’ School in Surrey. She left school at 16 and joined the Dundee publisher DC Thomson to work on a new girls’ magazine, “Jackie”. She wrote several crime novels before turning to children’s books, and had mixed success with about 40 titles before “The Story of Tracy Beaker”, published by Doubleday in 1991, made her name.
Tracy Beaker returned in “The Dare Game” (2000) and “Starring Tracy Beaker” (2006), and as an adult in “My Mum Tracy Beaker” (2018) and “We Are the Beaker Girls” (2019). The CBBC series “The Story of Tracy Beaker” ran from 2002 to 2006 with Dani Harmer in the title role. The Girls books, which began with “Girls in Love” (1997), were adapted by ITV. “Hetty Feather” (2009) follows a red-haired girl left by her mother at the Foundling Hospital as a baby, and became a CBBC series in 2015.
“The Illustrated Mum” (1999) won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the British Book Award for Children’s Book of the Year, and “Girls in Tears” took the same British Book Award in 2003. Wilson was Children’s Laureate from 2005 to 2007. In 2002 she replaced Catherine Cookson as the most borrowed author in Britain’s libraries, a position she held until 2008. She was appointed OBE in 2002, DBE in 2008 and GBE in the 2025 New Year Honours.
Her recent work includes two new Faraway Tree novels continuing Enid Blyton’s series (2022 and 2023), and “Think Again” (2024), a novel for adults that picks up the Girls series. “Picture Imperfect” (2025) returns to Dol Westward and her mother Marigold from “The Illustrated Mum”. “The Seaside Sleepover” followed in 2025 and “Esme Pepper”, about a girl who goes into foster care after her mother is caught trying to steal a dolls’ house, in 2026.
Publication Order of Tracy Beaker Books
The Story of Tracy Beaker
1991
The Dare Game
2000
Starring Tracy Beaker
2006
Tracy Beaker’s Thumping Heart
2009
My Mum Tracy Beaker
2018
We Are the Beaker Girls
2019
Publication Order of Girls Books
Girls in Love
1997
Girls Under Pressure
1998
Girls Out Late
1999
Girls in Tears
2002
Think Again
2024
Publication Order of Hetty Feather Books
Hetty Feather
2009
Sapphire Battersea
2011
Emerald Star
2012
Diamond
2013
Little Stars
2015
Hetty Feather’s Christmas
2017
Publication Order of World of Hetty Feather Books
Clover Moon
2016
Rose Rivers
2018
Publication Order of Sleepovers Books
Sleepovers
2001
The Best Sleepover in the World
2023
The Seaside Sleepover
2025
Publication Order of The Illustrated Mum Books
The Illustrated Mum
1999
Picture Imperfect
2025
Publication Order of The Magic Faraway Tree Books
The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure
2022
The Magic Faraway Tree: A Christmas Adventure
2023
Publication Order of Stevie Day Books
Supersleuth
1987
Lonely Hearts
1987
Rat Race
1988
Vampire
1988
Publication Order of Is There Anybody There? Books
