Dame Jacqueline Wilson - The Annual Creative (Reading and) Writing Lecture 2026

PLEASE NOTE, THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT AND NOW HAS OVER 250 PEOPLE ON ITS WAITING LIST. 

We are delighted to welcome one of the UK's most loved authors, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, to the university to give this year's Annual Creative Writing Lecture. As part of the UK's National Year of Reading, she'll be discussing the writing craft, but also the vital importance of reading, in a talk for everyone, from young to old. Further details of her subject matter will come nearer the time.

Dame Jacqueline Wilson is one of Britain’s outstanding writers for young readers. Known for her contemporary stories many featuring feisty characters like the enduring Tracy Beaker, she has also used historical settings for many books such as Hetty Feather, Opal Plumstead and The Runaway Girls. Jacqueline has published over 120 books for children and since 2024, she has written two books for adults which re-visit characters that she first wrote about in her children’s books in the 1990s.

Born in Bath, Jacqueline spent most of her childhood in Kingston on Thames. She wanted to be a writer from the age of 6 and wrote her first ‘novel’ when she was nine. She started work as a journalist for DC Thomson in Dundee where JACKIE magazine was named after her. Jacqueline has been writing full time, all her adult life and over 40 million copies of her books have been sold in the UK alone. They have been translated into 34 languages.

Jacqueline has been honoured with many of the UK’s top awards including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award, the Smarties Prize and the Children’s Book of the Year. She was the Children’s Laureate from 2005-2007 and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Kingston, Bath, Winchester, Dundee and Roehampton where she was also Chancellor for six years. In the 2025 New Year Honours List she was awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire – the highest award of its kind.

Books will be available for purchase after the event via our wonderful bookseller, Kibworth Books. While Jacqueline will not be able to sign books, we will provide publisher book plates with her name for all purchases.