ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Picture Imperfect

Jacqueline Wilson author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Transworld Publishers Ltd

Published:28th Aug '25

Should be back in stock very soon

This hardback is available in other editions too:

Picture Imperfect cover

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Millions grew up loving The Illustrated Mum; now you can curl up this festive period and find out what happens next in this joyful adult sequel by the world's favourite comfort author, Jacqueline Wilson!

Dolphin Westward is done putting everyone else first - especially her unpredictable mother, Marigold. But how do you break the habit of a lifetime?

When she meets Lee, the kind single dad next door, she glimpses the wholesome family life she’s always wanted. Then Joel crashes into her world - a rugged, magnetic actor who makes her feel truly seen - and suddenly Dolphin finds herself torn between two very different futures.

It's not long before everything begins to unravel, and her picture-perfect life feels further away than ever.

Faced with losing it all, can she learn to stop chasing perfection and start being herself?

READERS ARE OBSESSED WITH PICTURE IMPERFECT:

‘Jacqueline Wilson is a national treasure! Picture Imperfect is at once beautiful, sad, and uplifting’ – Alice Winn

'I devoured this entire book in one sitting . . . it catapulted me out of a reading slump' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'There's something so comforting about reading a Jacqueline Wilson book . . . You can just sink into it'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'Picture Imperfect is everything I didn’t know I needed: tender, messy and deeply relatable'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

‘10/10 would recommend to anyone who loved Jacqueline Wilson as a child, and to anyone who's never read her before this is just the perfect novel of 'adult trying to sort their mess of a life out’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'A nostalgic hug from the past'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'It's real, raw and completely relatable’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I obviously hoovered it up. There's something about the way Jacqueline Wilson writes that gets me racing through every page!'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I absolutely adored diving back into the world of The Illustrated Mum. . . It brought all the nostalgia. I could not put this down'⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐


Instant Sunday Times bestseller, August 2025

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 *
Praise for Picture Imperfect * : *
‘Jacqueline Wilson is a national treasure! Picture Imperfect is at once beautiful, sad and uplifting.’ -- Alice Winn

ISBN: 9780857507631

Dimensions: 241mm x 162mm x 31mm

Weight: 558g

352 pages