'I'm not really interested in princesses'

TOP children's author Jacqueline Wilson is looking forward to a three-pronged attack on Newcastle next week. Her favourite character Hetty Feather has been adapted for the stage and plays at the Theatre Royal, Wilson visits to launch her latest Hetty book Little Stars next Thursday and she is keen to catch up with Tyneside's Seven Stories children's book gallery and archive.

"I have a new Hetty Feather book out that day and I'm hoping to get to see the play. It will be about my 20th time. I never get fed up of seeing it. I also love Seven Stories because it has been very kind to me and put on exhibitions in the past. I very much want to see what is on there now," she says.

She feels that 2015 is a special Hetty Feather year – although the West End adaptation was a sell-out last year – because she hadn't known of the UK tour being planned as the same time as CBBC started running a TV series.

"I thought that the very least I can do is write a fifth book about Hetty. It might be the last one, I don't know. I keep saying that, but then another idea pops up. I thought it would round off the year nicely if I could manage a new book as well. Once I got into it, I found it was quite a big, hefty book, but I just whizzed through it. I love writing about Hetty," says Wilson.

Another of the writer's big characters is Tracy Beaker, who inspired another TV series filmed across the North-East and was based in Newcastle.

"I'll speak softly if Tracy is around, but Hetty is my favourite because I've always loved the Victoria age and although I'm known for doing a lot of contemporary books I was actually asked to do the first Hetty by the then director of The Foundling Museum. It was as if I was given permission to do something different and as soon I started I thought, 'Wow, I really like immersing myself in Victorian times'. If I was writing about a child today being beaten and put in an attic or having to fend for herself on the street, lots of protective parents would feel it wasn't suitable material for their child. But if it's way back in history, somehow nobody turns a hair, which is great," she says.

The author of 100 books, with Scotland's Jackie magazine being named after her at its launch, is asked by her young readers why she writes about unhappy families and, in the case of Tracy and Hetty, children in care.

"They ask why many of my children don't have mums and dads. Some come from reasonably well-balanced families but I must admit I do go for the waifs and strays. This has always been my taste in literature. My two favourite classics are Jane Eyre and David Copperfield. I liked the childhood parts and lost interest when they grew up. When children read about another child going through rough times they sympathise with them and start imagining, 'How would I cope?' Children have told me that playing Hetty is their favourite game in the playground and working out how to defeat the nasty matron. I think it's quite cathartic for children," Wilson says.

"I'm not really interested in princesses and I think if everything is handed to you on a plate it's lovely for you, but the most interesting people are the ones that have to fight for themselves and if they haven't got a lovely pair of parents to help them on their way it interests me how they get past difficulties. When children today lose a best friend or get a bit teased at school, hearing of other children going through hard times is kind of comforting."

Wilson tends to find plots through the characters she invents.

"It might be something quite banal like the book I'm currently writing about a girl who lives with her dad and is desperate to be a bridesmaid, but doesn't know anyone who is getting married. Partly the hook is about having that beautiful bridesmaid dress which interests little girls very much or appals little girls who wouldn't be seen in pink fluffy silk. It's also about a single parent family and alternative weddings and other things. The original idea came from a little girl who wanted to show me her bridesmaid's frock and they are quite a talking point between eight or nine-year-old girls," Wilson says.

A recently-published book. Katy, saw her re-write the 19th Century What Kay Did plot by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey from the perspective of what would really have happened.

"I feel it's really inappropriate for today and I echo the situation, but after my Katy has had her accident I tried to show what it's actually like in a children's spinal unit. It feel it is a bit more of a help to be cussed, determined and angry in this situation, but it is still more of funny book rather than misery and it has a positive ending.... I promise."

Wilson confesses she is finding it quite difficult to decide on a final ending for Hetty.

"Hundreds and hundreds of little girls, having read the first book adore her foster brother Jem, like Hetty. Basically, in spite of feminism and everything that has happened in the 20th and 21st Centuries, so many little girls want Hetty to settle down young in a little village and have lots of babies. When I have her doing other things, they write to me rudely and says, 'You have broken my heart' and offer alternative endings."

Book five ends with Hetty having several worthwhile choices and Wilson hopes it won't disappoint the majority of her fans.... but then there is always book six of what started out as a trilogy.

• Hetty Feather, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Thursday, October 8 to Saturday, October 11.

An Audience With Jacqueline Wilson, Oct 8, 5pm

Box Office: 08448-112-121 or theatreroyal.co.uk

• The show moves to the West Yorkshire Playhouse from Tuesday, October 27 to Saturday, October 31. Jacqueline Wilson is doing An Audience With... on Oct 29. Box Office: 0113-213-7700 or wyp.org.uk