KEY POINTS:
Once, young ladies aspiring to be famous pitched themselves at careers such as actress, singer, dancer, model. But in these times of empowerment, women expect to achieve more. Now, celebrities like to write on their passports, "journalist, columnist, novelist". Once, we had Simone de Beauvoir and Martha Gellhorn. Now, we have footballer's wife Coleen McLoughlin and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell.
The cause of all this literary confusion is a new breed of female authors who are, shall we say, predominantly famous for other things. In Britain, Coleen and Geri have joined Madonna and Katie Price (aka Jordan) on the bookshelves with their first offerings as children's authors.
At least McLoughlin, author of the imminent series Coleen: Style Queen (fashion and beauty tips for 10-year-olds) has form. She was a journalist before she found fame as an author.
Halliwell, whose children's book series Ugenia Lavender follows the adventures of an ingenious schoolgirl, has not previously been published anywhere. But a spokeswoman for her publisher, Macmillan, says she has always been a book lover, and used to write short stories as a child.
Apparently, though, it's not cool to care how much of a book was written by the name on the cover. When Price's book Perfect Ponies was shortlisted for Children's Book of the Year in England, some authors - Joanne Harris and Tracy Chevalier, for example - said it was "disappointing", "inappropriate" and "tacky".
But no less a figure than Michael Rosen, the UK's children's laureate, disagreed. "We get too hung up about authorship," he said. "None of us writes a book entirely on our own. We get help from editors, or ideas might come from conversations with our families or children."
In which case, only bores will notice a tiny note on the back flyleaf of Halliwell's offering: "Thanks to Jonny Zucker", the name of a popular children's author.
McLoughlin's acknowledgments thank a Lucy Courtenay, whose biography on the website of literary agents, Curtis Brown, says she has worked as a tea lady, porcelain dealer, teacher... and children's author.
Halliwell says: "There is a prejudice against celebrity authors, but if you read my stories you'll know they're not ghost-written - only I could be that bonkers!" But at the PR firm employed by her publisher, nobody seemed clear about Zucker. Later, somebody researched him and replied: "He was one of the first people she spoke to and he gave her some great advice and encouragement. That's all I've got." They added that they'd heard McLoughlin did not write her books and only "endorsed them".
According to Amazon, people who bought Madonna's children's books also bought her CD Hard Candy, which shows that children have Catholic tastes these days, or maybe that parents have very little imagination. But who cares? Anyone can be a top-selling author. And that's incredible! It's inspirational! It's totally ingenious! (As Ugenia Lavender would, and does, say a lot in her latest adventures.)
- INDEPENDENT
