She goes on: “I've been to most of his exhibitions and you see the sheer joy on people's faces as they go round. And I think, to have that gift - to take art so seriously, but also with a light heart and a light touch - is wonderful.”

Fans could say the same of Dame Jacqueline herself.

At 76, she has released more than 100 books, many of which are loved by children around the world, while characters such as Tracy Beaker have taken on a life of their own through television adaptations. More than 40 million of her books have been sold in the UK and they have been translated into 34 different languages. She is a former Children’s Laureate and was appointed a Dame by the late Queen in 2008.

To coincide with the release of her latest book, Project Fairy, Dame Jacqueline will be in York on Friday giving a talk at City Screen Picture House between 6pm and 7pm, an event organised in partnership with Waterstones.

The new book subverts the concept of a flower fairy and instead bases one on bindweed (considered a scourge by both Dame Jacqueline’s partner, Trish, and a centuries-old Gerard's Herbal book that she owns); a fairy who “isn’t all twinkle toes and sweetness” and who shows the protagonist, Mab, how to stick up for herself.

Dame Jacqueline says: “I also thought, for urban children - as I was as a child - you don't really get out in the country. You don't see hedgerows, you don't see this and that, but I wanted to show that even if you live in a pretty grim flat, somewhere rather bleak, you can find little spots where there are flowers and grass and a bit of fresh air. So it's kind of got a message but I hope, basically, it's just good fun to read.”

Over the years, her books have explored issues such as fostering, divorce and single parenting, but Dame Jacqueline always prioritises the youngster who is reading.

“You never know what type of child is reading your books and what may be a difficult subject for them. I like to produce characters that are rounded. I think sometimes mums and dads get a bit edgy because maybe I show a parent not in the greatest light, because I'm not the believer in pretending that all mums and dads are perfect all the time, as they used to be portrayed in children's books.

"Because in real life even the loveliest parents get cross and lose their tempers, perhaps unfairly.

"I want to show things from a child's point of view and I think if you use the first person they immediately become involved, because it's their best friend telling them a secret and you can deal with things.”

She gives an example of her book The Illustrated Mum, featuring a mother who has many tattoos, in which Dame Jacqueline was at pains to not write about whether it was a “good thing or a bad thing or a beautiful thing or a weird thing, because many kids have got mums with lots of tattoos,” she says.

“I want to please people and not make people feel uncomfortable when they read my book, even though I think some parents think I go out of my way to write about worrying things, but I always like there to be some kind of solution, but a realistic one.”

Some of her favourite stories to write were the books about Victorian foundling Hetty Feather.

“I've always been interested in the Victorian age. The whole foundlings set- up, these poor little kids being brought up rather strictly and just treated rather meanly by cross matrons.

"It's just complete fodder for my imagination.

“And I think if write about Victorian children having a bad time, it's not quite as worrying for children as if you write about modern children, because they (the reader) can empathise and get caught up in the story, but it isn't as if it actually might be a possibility that it would happen to them. So you can be really quite melodramatic if you want to be and make the story really quite exciting, but without worrying the children too much.”

A television show about Hetty aired between 2015 and 2020 on CBBC but when it comes to Dame Jacqueline adaptations on the small screen, Tracy Beaker is the one that really took off.

Starting in 2002, programmes about the character – first introduced on the page in 1991 – continue to this day and when the adaptation My Mum Tracy Beaker was released in February 2021, it recorded 2.1 million streams on iPlayer, making it the most successful such programme launch for CBBC. “If we all last long enough we might have Tracy Beaker as an old age pensioner,” laughs Dame Jacqueline.

“I was so lucky because I was relatively well known before the television series, but I'm not daft, I know that it really contributed to my name becoming something that children would look for and like.

"And all power to Dani Harmer for playing the part from when she was 10 or 11 - she's in her mid 30s now. Obviously she's done a lot of other things as well, but it's not often you get some valiant actor who’s prepared to stay in character all that time.”

On Friday, Dame Jacqueline is hoping to visit Bettys and - a collector of more than 20,000 books - nip into some of York’s antiquarian book shops.

“It's one of my most favourite places,” she says. She will very welcome.

Project Fairy, which is suitable for readers over seven and has illustrations by Rachael Dean, is released tomorrow.