Jacqueline Wilson announces adult sequel to popular children's novel

She will be focusing on the lives of the mum's children, Dolphin and Star, in Picture Imperfect.

The novel will be released on 28th August 2025 and to celebrate the exciting news, Wilson appeared on The Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 to chat about it.

"There are two of me, actually, the one that writes the children's books - and I love writing children's books, still going to - but it's been so exciting in the last year, I revisited three teenage girls that I'd written about in the 1990s and now, God help them, they're pushing 40. I thought, 'What fun it would be to actually write about them in an adult novel,'" she said on the inspiration for Picture Imperfect.

"One of the books that people have mentioned over the years is The Illustrated Mum, about a mum who has bipolar disorder, a lovely mum in some ways, but very unreliable, and you've got two kids, Dolphin and Star, named after the most popular flash tattoos. Now Dolphin is 33, the exact same age that the mum is in the first children's book."

The official synopsis for Picture Imperfect reads: "Dolphin Westward spent her childhood as the supporting character in the story of her beautiful, wild, volatile mother Marigold. Now 33, 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?"

Last year, Wilson explored some more of her characters from the '90s in Think Again, which picked up the story of the Girls series now they're adults.

• Pre-order Picture Imperfect now

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