'I've the Land of Princes and Princesses - and you couldn't get more stereotypical there - but I have tried to have the children respond in the way I think they would. 'You have to be careful, you have to be inclusive,' she agrees. She features the Land of Unicorns and the Land of Dragons, which she realises may be stereotypical of genders (girls liking unicorns, boys preferring dragons, she muses). 'I'm very respectful of the original but over many decades, occasionally food references or unfortunate references that were very ordinary in their times but nowadays don't fit with the way we think have gently been changed.' 'That was by someone who hadn't read a word of it. Her Enid Blyton re-imagining has been described by one critic as a 'woke rewrite'.

'I have no idea whether Enid Blyton thought they were her absolute triumph, but I think they are, outdoing The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.'

'I speak not only as a woman in her 70s but as a six-year-old reading one of the first books that turned me into a fluent reader,' says Wilson. The book introduces Milo, Mia and Birdy in a contemporary way, with parents keeping a watchful eye in the background, whereas the original saw no parental supervision as the norm. She says 'everything is similar' to Blyton's original, first published more than seven decades years ago, 'but my children are modern children', Wilson (76) adds. The original (there were three in the series) was Wilson's favourite book as a child. She has now written The Magic Faraway Tree: A New Adventure, a re-imagining of Enid Blyton's story about three children who discover enchanted lands at the top of an enormous tree - but with a modern twist. 'During the two years when I wasn't able to go out and about, I've become like a hamster in a cage, writing more than ever,' the former Children's Laureate enthuses. In fact, her creative juices were positively flowing during the pandemic, she discloses, with books galore - still to be published - and new TV projects in the pipeline. Her Cavapoo puppy, Molly, is another distraction for the Tracy Beaker creator, who has sold more than 40 million books - but once the lively pup is removed from the room, Wilson is ready to talk. 'I WILL have to join the modern world and get a smartphone, because my phone is as dumb as can be,' quips acclaimed children's author Jacqueline Wilson, lamenting her confusion at dialling in for our interview.

The magic faraway tree by enid blyton