My secret diary by Jacqueline Wilson

Doubleday, 2009. ISBN 9780385614429
(Ages 12+) A treasure trove of information and snippets of stories to hold anyone's interest, especially those enthralled with the writing of Wilson, this diary, full of entries from her own diary at 14, is augmented with extra information and a plethora of photographs, drawings and book covers.
Subtitled, Dating, Dancing, Dreams and Dilemmas, the book reveals the life of a teenage girl in 1960. Wilson has plundered her own diary of that year, and added her own comments from now, explaining her relationship with her parents, things she and her friends did, her trials at school and what was happening in the wider world.
So we hear of the books she read and their impact upon her, the writing she started and put aside, the novels she wrote, poems, drawings, all things creative. It is a most rewarding peak into an author's life and the things which influenced her to become the writer she is. I love her work, it is ground in a sense of social justice, leans heavily on her own background, and particularizes those people who are rarely met in children's novels, the ordinary children going about their daily business of school, home and family.
For those who love Wilson's work and want to know more about her, for those who want a look at an author's early life, for those who simply want a good read, then this diary format is ideal.
Fran Knight