Tracy Beaker is back, as a single Mum living on a council estate. The bestselling author talks about ‘grit-fic’, selfie-culture – and what she won’t write about
“Have you heard of my mum Tracy Beaker?… Everyone knows her,” announces narrator Jess. So begins Jacqueline Wilson’s latest book, her 108th – possibly, “I lost count around 100,” she says. A generation of (mostly) girls grew up reading the novels and watching the hit TV series about the misadventures of Wilson’s best-loved heroine battling her way through life in a children’s home – referred to as the Dumping Ground. Now, 27 years after The Story of Tracy Beaker was published, Tracy is back, a single mum in her late 20s, living on the Duke estate, between jobs and dating a former footballer. With a reunion of old friends – Tracy’s long-suffering foster mum Cam, bully boy “Football” and even “Justine Enemy-Forever Littlewood”, My Mum Tracy Beaker will appeal not only to Wilson’s devoted fans but also to their mums.
But even before the book’s release, Wilson is getting the sort of flak that has often accompanied her rise to become one of the UK’s most successful children’s authors. The pre-publicity revealed that the novel opens in Tracy’s cosy council flat and there were grumbling tweets along the lines of: “Oh typical, doesn’t Jacqueline Wilson think that looked-after children can ever be a big success?” “Well, being realistic,” says Wilson with a faint weariness, “I wanted it to be London-based, and which person out of any background can afford a wonderful house by the time of Tracy’s age?” Unless, she adds, “you are going to have some fairytale thing like she’s an actress or a bestselling novelist, or something like that? It did bother me that the only way to make a success of yourself is to become a celebrity. Occasionally this happens, not often.”
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