Dame Jacqueline began her writing career as a teenage journalist with D C Thomson, writing for Jackie, a magazine for teenagers, which was named after her. She also wrote several crime fiction novels before turning to children’s books.
She had mixed success with about 40 books before the breakthrough to fame in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker, which has been adapted into multiple spin-offs including a musical stage and a successful TV series. There have been several sequels to the book, including the 2018 My Mum Tracy Beaker. Jacqueline’s other published work has been adapted into stage and radio plays and TV series include Double Act, Bad Girls, The Illustrated Mum, Hetty Feather and Girls in Love.
Her novels frequently feature themes of adoption, divorce and mental illness, they tend to attract controversy – yet are well loved by children and adults alike. She has written over 100 books, which have sold 40+ million copies and been translated into over 30 languages. During the year 2000, six of her books were listed among the top ten bestselling children’s paperbacks.
Her work has won several awards over the years, and she has received a number of honorary degrees in recognition of her achievements in literature. In 2025 she was awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for her services to Literature.
Goals as Waterstones Children’s Laureate
For Jacqueline’s tenure as the Children’s Laureate she championed books being accessible for all children, in particular for the blind, and campaigned against cutbacks in children’s drama on television.
Jacqueline also focused on encouraging reading aloud to young children, believing that early exposure to books could create lifelong readers. From this, she curated Great Books to Read Aloud, a guide of all the best stories to read aloud with children selected by booksellers and book experts with lots of tips. During her time as the Children’s Laureate, Jacqueline toured extensively across the UK and met over 400,000 children and adults.
