Overall an enjoyably experience in the world of reading, aaaand I'd happily recommend it to fiends and family! Jacqueline Wilson is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author who served as Children's Laureate from 2005-7. We are transported to England in the 1950’s, only a few short months before Queen Elizabeth’s II coronation.

I like that lots of Jacqueline Wilson’s books are set in Victorian times but actually this one is set quite a bit after. As well as winning many awards for her books, including the Children's Book of the Year, Jacqueline is a former Children's Laureate, and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. I mean yes she did get her comeuppance in that her boss who she had got off with and went to start a new business with in Canada ended up leaving her for another woman, forcing her to come back and go back to her career in show business, but I still wish she'd received some sort of comeuppance for her awful mothering, rather than having her go back to living with Elsie and her nan, even if it was just from time to time. Today she's reading me Queenie - her new favourite Jacqueline Wilson - and, is often the case with Wilson, it's full of uncomfortable social situations, complicated family setups and less than amiable adults .

Her novels have been adapted numerous times for television, and commonly deal with such difficult topics as adoption, divorce, and mental illness.

engaging and charming to read, though the incomprehension of her mum made me a bit frustrated I won't lie. In the end (in the epilogue), Elsie and Nan recover, and they go home to their new flat (because Elsie's mother let the other one go), and Elsie's mother goes back into show business. Her Nan collapses at work and it is found that she has pulmonary tuberculosis and so Nan is sent off to a sanatorium to recover. After that, Elsie lives with Nan in their basement flat in Burlington when her mother is a stage performer. She wasn't much better than Marilyn and Susan in the end to be honest, worse if anything, as at least Marilyn and Susan hadn't led her on into thinking they were her true friends.The story focuses on Elsie Kettle, a girl who lives with her nan, until her nan catches pulmonary tuberculosis. When she goes to the children's hospital, her ability for telling stories eventually makes the other children warm to her, although her skill irritates her mother, tires her school teacher, Miss Roberts, and even occasionally bores Nan. When Elsie and her Mum are tested, it is discovered that Elise has TB of the knee, and she needs treatment as well. But then Elsie develops TB too, and before long she is in hospital herself, strapped up with a leg splint.