T here are many ways to describe Jacqueline Wilson but as usual her own words work best: “I’m a 10-year-old girl disguised as a grey-haired old lady, so you could say I’m locked in childhood.”

Not just any grey-haired lady of course, but one of the most famous children’s authors on the planet, whose books have been adapted for television, the recipient of countless awards and now a Dame to boot.

A recent heart condition curtailed her proliferation for a short-time, but Dame Jacqueline is feeling better and delighted to be back with a new book, Diamond, a pacemaker and a tour.

“I hadn’t realised how much I enjoyed doing it until I couldn’t, so I’m looking forward to coming to The Playhouse where I feel like an actress strutting her stuff on stage,” the 67-year-old says.

So how is she? “Full of energy,” she promises. “Most days I’m reasonably well, although I still need treatment, but it’s not as grave as I thought which is a big relief. I used to think nothing of spending my days out on the road going to schools and libraries, now I need a lie down even thinking about it.”

So why not have one instead of charging about the country? “All my nearest and dearest say the same thing, but I don’t want to slow up when the ideas are still flowing. I never want to stop, so it’s me that sets the pace and I am a hard task-master.”

That’s the thing about writers, they can’t turn the tap off even if they want to. But it’s been a funny few years for Jacqueline Wilson. First came her illness, then her autobiographies, and next an anthology for Battersea Cat and Dogs Home. So has she decided to shake things up a bit?

“Well my memoirs only came about because I got wind that my publishers had asked someone else to write them, and the only person who knows about my childhood is me. They might know me as a grown up, but I wanted children to be able to read it, because they always ask me what I was like when I was little: who was my best friend, if I was shy, did I have a pet? So I suggested writing it instead, and wrote one up to the age of 11 and the next age 13/14 for all the tall shy girls out there like me who want to write.”

What would that tall, shy girl think of the woman who gets up on stage to talk to her fans? “I was shy but there was also a show- off in me. I loved reading aloud in class so that part of me has always been there, which means I can get up on stage and talk to 500 people without turning a hair, but ask me to go to a drinks party for 20 and I get much more anxious,” she laughs.

Even so, it must have been very nostalgic retracing her childhood? “Yes, but luckily my mother was a fanatical snapshot taker so there were heaps and heaps of photos at my disposal, which were hell at the time but very useful now. And living in the same place helps me remember what it was like when I was a little girl.”

Dame Jacqueline Wilson still lives in Kingston, where she grew up, in a modest four-bedroomed Victorian terraced house. “I do get tempted by the houses in the Sunday supplements, but then realised a bigger house would need more upkeep and care and I couldn’t be bothered, so I’m happy as I am,” she says, her feet firmly on the ground.

But that’s the thing about Jacqueline Wilson, she knows her saving grace is her grasp on reality, her ability to understand everyday life and its ups-and-downs from a children’s point of view and refusing to write fairy stories or shy away from the darker side of life. “Children often ask me why I write unhappy stories and I think ‘yes why do I?’. And sit down to write a happy one, but as I go along I think ‘uh-oh something’s going to have to go wrong here’. It’s just the way I write, they just turn out that way.”

The latest novel, Diamond, pictured left, is the fourth in a series of Victorian melodramas.

What comes first, the character or the plot? “The character,” she says emphatically, “as if you conjure up an imaginary friend and put them in different situations. It’s the characters that inform the stories. Tracy was like that [Tracy Beaker is the phenomenally successful book and TV series penned by Jacqueline]. Once I’d conjured her up I wanted to know why she was like that and what were her circumstances. Because you have to care about the characters. So although the story is important, I don’t map it out, I just see how it develops.”

More than anything, it’s her innate understanding of how children’s psyches work, that has made Jacqueline herself such a household name. “I always get asked where my inspiration comes from and I always answer that it’s a bit like writing about your dreams, some are mangled and some just come to you by surprise.

“But I always have to start with a blank canvas. Some characters stay with me and some fade. The ones that stay get a sequel and others slip away because I’m already on to the next one. But I’d need a very big head to store all my characters in,” she points out. A very big head indeed.

 

Oxford Playhouse
Saturday, 11am
Tickets: £6, 01865 305305 or oxfordplayhouse.com