I'm very grateful to TikTok - it's made many teenagers keen on reading
| Published date | 11 June 2022 |
| Publication title | Huddersfield Daily Examiner |
In fact, her creative juices were positively flowing during the pandemic, she discloses, with books galore - still to be published - and new TV projects in the pipeline.
"During the two years when I wasn't able to go out and about, I've become like a hamster in a cage, writing more than ever," the former Children's Laureate enthuses.
She has now written The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure, a reimagining of Enid Blyton's story about three children who discover enchanted lands at the top of an enormous tree - but with a modern twist. The original (there were three in the series) was Dame Jacqueline's favourite book as a child.
She says "everything is similar" to Blyton's original, published more than seven decades ago, "but my children are modern children", Dame Jacqueline, 76, adds. "They are 2020 children, with their own ideas and thoughts but enjoy magical adventures just as much as anyone else."
The book introduces Milo, Mia and Birdy in a contemporary way, with parents keeping a watchful eye in the background, whereas the original saw no parental supervision as the norm.
"I speak not only as a woman in her 70s but as a six-year-old reading one of the first books that turned me into a fluent reader. I have no idea whether Enid Blyton thought they were her absolute triumph, but I think they are, outdoing The Famous Five and The Secret Seven."
Dame Jacqueline, who lives with her longterm partner Trish in Sussex, believes it's hugely important to keep classics on the bookshelves.
children."'s Enid "Children should read a wide variety of stories, but some classics should last generation after generation. I'm a huge Charlotte Bronte fan, a Dickens fan, although I'm not comparing myself to these giants of English literature, but I think it's worth keeping some favourite books in print because they have stood up for themselves and delighted many generations." Her Enid Blyton re-imagining, however, has been described by one critic as a 'woke re-write.' .
"That was by someone who hadn't read a word of it. Of course it isn't," she says seriously. "I'm very respectful of the original but over many dec- ades, occasionally food references or unfortunate references that were very ordinary in their times but nowadays don't fit with the way we think have gently...
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