Author Dame Jacqueline Wilson has announced an upcoming book, Picture Imperfect, an adult sequel to her 1999 children’s book, The Illustrated Mum. The novel, which will be released on 28th August 2025, will reunite readers with Dolphin and Star, who spent their childhood dealing with their mother, Marigold, whose tattoos give the book its name, navigating their mother’s bipolar disorder.
In Picture Imperfect, Dolphin, now age 33, is living in a bedsit, working at a tattoo parlour and often collecting her mother from the police station. She hopes for romance but is torn between stable Lee and his daughter Ava or a fling with actor Joel. Star, meanwhile, works as a doctor, in Scotland with her family.
The much-loved author never shied away from exploring dark issues and difficult topics including families, domestic violence, death, and mental health in her YA and teen books, and the same is reflected in her few follow-up books aimed at her, now adult, readers. Those that grew up reading Jacqueline Wilson’s work have been given the chance to return to some of the writer’s most memorable characters including a sequel to the ‘Girls’ series, Think Again, which was released last year, and now, Picture Imperfect.
Talking to radio DJ, Scott Mills, on BBC Radio 2, Jacqueline Wilson said: “I discovered what fun it is… it’s like a party game – thinking about your childhood favourites that you wrote about.
“And one of the books that people have mentioned over the years is The Illustrated Mum”.
