New Year Honours list: Sussex children’s novelist Dame Jacqueline Wilson awarded Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire

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A popular children’s novelist from East Sussex has been made a Dame Grand Cross (GBE) in the latest New Year Honours list.

Dame Jacqueline Wilson DBE, from Polegate, received the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature.

The 79-year-old author is best known for creating the characters of Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather and has been writing since childhood, writing her first ‘novel’ when she was just nine years old. She has written more than 100 books and has sold more than 40 million copies of them.

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Dame Jacqueline often appears at public events in Sussex. She launched her book The Primrose Railway Children at Bluebell Railway’s Sheffield Park Station in September 2021, opened the new library at Newhaven’s Harbour Primary & Nursery in July 2022, and celebrated World Book Day at Drusillas Zoo in March 2024.

Dame Jacqueline Wilson DBE, from Polegate, was awarded the Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for services to literature. She is pictured at the Bluebell Railway’s Sheffield Park Station in September 2021Dame Jacqueline Wilson DBE, from Polegate, was awarded the Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for services to literature. She is pictured at the Bluebell Railway’s Sheffield Park Station in September 2021
Dame Jacqueline Wilson DBE, from Polegate, was awarded the Dames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) for services to literature. She is pictured at the Bluebell Railway’s Sheffield Park Station in September 2021

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, December 31, the author said she was ‘absolutely amazed’. She said: “It does mean so much. I have been sort of trying very hard to spread the word that books are great and ‘please read a lot kids’. And it just seems fantastic that just in a little way that my books might have helped introduce children to the joys of reading, which is so dear to my heart. And I do say ‘don't just read my books, read everybody’s books!”

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