Dame Jacqueline Wilson at Chichester Free School
26th September 2021
On Sunday 26th September Dame Jacqueline Wilson visited Chichester Free School to speak to a packed audience of children and parents about her latest book, The Primrose Railway Children.
Jacqueline engaged the entire audience with her tales of how she became a writer and how Tracey Beaker got her name! She spoke about how she had been inspired by E Nesbit to take her plot and write the story of the Railway Children for a modern audience. It was wonderful to hear how and why she chooses names and traits for her characters and how these days some of the older characters lose or misplace their mobile phones! This is so that Jacqueline doesn’t have to navigate the whole mobile phone thing in her stories.
The audience purchased books from One Tree Books, an award winning independent bookshop in Petersfield, with signed book plates for all. Jacqueline took time to take selfies with may of the fans, young and old, and spent time having a quick word with each of them. Such an inspiring person to spend an afternoon with. We were all fans before but were definitely enchanted by her as the afternoon went on.
Huge thanks to Chichester Free School and One Tree Books for supporting the event. We hope there will be more opportunities for meeting authors in the coming year. Keep an eye on our events page.
