Jacqueline Wilson

From Acker Bilk to Queen.

Former Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson OBE shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Jacqueline has won just about every award going for children's fiction and has written over 80 books. Even as a child she knew she wanted to write but, after an inauspicious time at school, she reluctantly trained to be a secretary instead. Then she began to pitch ideas for a new teen magazine, Jackie, her stories were bought and she quickly became a staff writer.

But she was 50 before she devised her most famous creation, Tracy Beaker. Tracy is a streetwise, feisty girl growing up in the competitive world of a children's home, who never loses the hope that one day her mum will come back for her. The book was a breakthrough for Jacqueline and its subsequent TV adaptation introduced her to a mass audience.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2005.