Picture Imperfect

Discover the messy and joyful new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Think Again; a nostalgic adult sequel to the beloved classic, The Illustrated Mum!

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' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

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

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

'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