NUMEROUS MOTHERS, enraged by their daughters’ refusal to bond with the comforting, middle-class world of Narnia or Arthur Ransome, dismiss Jacqueline Wilson’s work as “slumming”. To children aged between 7 and 14, however, she can feel like a best friend.

Wilson, the Children’s Laureate, writes about children having problems of the kind that adults don’t want them to know about: manic depression, divorce, adoption, bullying, bereavement and all forms of unhappiness that come with being poor and very young.

I am all for realism in children’s fiction as long as it doesn’t encourage self-pity. Wilson’s stories, though bold and brave in conception, have suffered from being narrated by the same kind of plaintive female voice: I wanted to give Tracey Beaker a dose of cod liver oil and a course of kick-boxing lessons.

Love Lessons, however, deserves three cheers for at long last presenting us with a true heroine. Fifteen-year-old Prudence hates her dad, a violently controlling second-hand bookseller who keeps her and her sister, Grace, virtual prisoners. Home-educated, Prue is falling behind in maths but brilliant at English and wants to go to art college. When her father discovers that she has spent the money meant for her maths tuition on buying “proper” clothes to replace the embarrassingly awful stuff that her mother makes from remnants, he has a stroke.

At last, the girls can and must go to school — not to the local grammar but to the despised comprehensive.

Here, plump, plain good- natured Grace blossoms and acquires friends, but slim, pretty Prue falls foul of all kinds of conventions, not least in having unwittingly bought herself “slag’s underwear”. The other girls persecute her, especially when she attracts Toby, the beautiful but illiterate boy in her class who resembles her imaginary friend Tobias (inspired by the biblical story).

Prue, however, is far more interested in her kind and handsome young art teacher, Mr Raxberry. Written off academically for knowing too little about maths and too much about literature, she clings to his lessons, babysits for his children and falls hopelessly in love.

This is a dynamic and highly topical subject, covered in adult novels such as Zoe Heller’s Notes on a Scandal but neglected in children’s fiction, and one admires Wilson enormously for tackling it. Mr Raxberry responds with the mixture of tact, sensitivity and guilty lust that is all too credible. Many teenagers harbour sexual and romantic feelings for their teachers that can tip over into disaster for both sides if indulged; Love Lessons makes this clear in the course of a funny story about a dysfunctional family.

For the real big, bad wolf of Prue’s life is, of course, her father, whose return to health and speech is dreaded by all. Her strategies to keep him from discovering the truth, and his apoplectic rages made us laugh aloud. Wilson is clever enough to make readers see that Prue’s old-fashioned clothes and love of books, her innocence and very literary understanding of the world are what make her special and strong.

There are many classic reversals in the story, and Prue’s mother’s discovery of her own strength in confronting the appalling father make this the most richly enjoyable Wilson novel for years. Only the final page, which has poor Prue continuing to pine for her art teacher, lets it down.

Critic’s chart, page 23

Where to see . . .

JACQUELINE WILSON
DATE Sunday October 16
PLACE Bacon Theatre
TIME 10am
TICKETS £5: 01242 227979

www.cheltenhamfestivals.org.uk

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VICE VERSA: A LESSON TO FATHERS
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