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  • Published: 2 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857507648
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $34.99

Picture Imperfect

  • Jacqueline Wilson




An adult sequel to beloved fan-favourite children’s novel The Illustrated Mum.

‘Sorry to wake you in the middle of the night, but we have a lady here who’s not very well. She says she’s called Marigold, Queen of the Sky?’

Dolphin Westward spent her childhood as the supporting character in the story of her beautiful, wild, volatile mother Marigold. Now thirty-three, she’s painfully aware that not much has changed. She lives in a tiny bedsit, works in a tattoo shop by day and collects her illustrated mum from police stations by night.

Dol yearns to climb out of the rut she is stuck in, but has no idea where to begin. Could gardener Lee and his daughter Ava be her chance for a wholesome family life? Or maybe a steamy romance with roguish actor Joel is just what she needs. And what about the offer from her sister Star, now a successful doctor, to move to Scotland and live with her young family?

As the choices threaten to overwhelm her, will Dol fall into the role of extra in someone else’s story once again – or find the strength to forge a brand new path of her own?

  • Published: 2 September 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857507648
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $34.99

Praise for Picture Imperfect

Praise for Jacqueline Wilson

:

A read-in-a-day comfort book.

Independent

Nuanced and refreshing...beautifully told.

Guardian

This story offers grown-ups what Wilson has long offered teenagers: comfort, sanity and delight in the ordinary.

Daily Mail

Jacqueline Wilson taps into the joys and pains of women everywhere.

Dawn O'Porter

Wilson knocks it out of the park once again...a moving story that is as fun to read as it is meaningful.

Alice Winn

She is a national treasure.

i News

Realistic, sharp eyed...I loved it and didn’t want it to end.

Katie Fforde
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