Jacqueline Wilson has announced a follow-up to her hit children's book The Illustrated Mum, 26 years after its release back in 1999.
The popular author has started to foray into adult fiction, and the new novel Picture Imperfect is the second adult fiction follow-up from her beloved children's books. This time, the story follows a grown-up Dolphin, who is still needing to look after her troubled mother Marigold as an adult.
The synopsis reads: "Dolphin Westward spent her childhood as the supporting character in the story of her beautiful, wild, volatile mother Marigold. Now thirty-three, she’s painfully aware that not much has changed. She lives in a tiny bedsit, works in a tattoo shop by day and collects her illustrated mum from police stations by night.
"Dol yearns to climb out of the rut she is stuck in, but has no idea where to begin. Could gardener Lee and his daughter Ava be her chance for a wholesome family life? Or maybe a steamy romance with roguish actor Joel is just what she needs. And what about the offer from her sister Star, now a successful doctor, to move to Scotland and live with her young family?
"As the choices threaten to overwhelm her, will Dol fall into the role of extra in someone else’s story once again – or find the strength to forge a brand new path of her own?"
The new description also includes a quote from the new novel, which reads: "Sorry to wake you in the middle of the night, but we have a lady here who’s not very well. She says she’s called Marigold, Queen of the Sky?"
Jacqueline's first adult novel, Think Again, followed an adult Ellie as she navigates life and dating as a single mother after losing her job as a cartoonist at a newspaper. The novel received mixed reviews from fans, with one person writing: "There were so many directions this book could have gone in. There are so many adult dramas and situations that could have been spoken about, but I just felt like [I] read a book about a 14 year old stuck in a 40 year old body."
Speaking about writing the adult version of her characters, she told the Independent: "I wanted to show, you know, some fond granny who thought ‘Oh, Jacqueline Wilson, my granddaughter likes that’… no, it’s not suitable for children. The three women have active sex lives, so I tried not to have anything too cringe-making… which I think is probably the least sexy thing of all to read – but just to show what was happening.
"I am going to be doing an event at my local village, and none of these experiences are based on anything that I have been involved with – and yet I know, I just know they’ll be looking at me, ‘Oh, fancy Jacky doing that'."
