A Podcast for the Books

Talking all things nostalgia and Jacqueline Wilson with Ella Smoli

When Ella Smoli, a third-year medicine student, explained to her dissertation supervisor that she hosts a weekly radio show dedicated to dissecting Jacqueline Wilson books, he shot her a puzzled look. 

After all, few middle-aged men would understand the traumatic childhood experience of reading about a mother who abandoned her baby in a dustbin, or a girl whose dead best friend haunts her around school. 

“It’s so hard trying to explain it to people,” Smoli said. “It’s such a niche market but so many girls of a specific age group really really resonate with it.”

Jacqueline Wilson rose to prominence in the UK in the early 2000s. Within just a few years, her children’s books became bestsellers and amassed a cult following of girls aged 8-14. 

Despite her popularity, however, Wilson’s tendency to centre her storylines around mature themes — abuse, neglect, and mental illness, to name a few — divided readers. As a result, some parents banished Wilson’s books from their daughters’ bookshelves, deeming them inappropriate for children. 

Smoli’s parents, on the contrary, knew little about what exactly hid behind Wilson’s colourful book covers. And so, Smoli happily devoured almost every single one of Wilson’s books — all before her tenth birthday.

Around a decade later, Smoli entered her first year of university. Academic matters occupied her mind — the thought of picking up one of Wilson’s books, not so much. 

But one night, sitting cross-legged with a friend in Andrew Melville Hall, Wilson’s stories came flooding back to her. They stayed up together for hours, discussing and deliberating every plotline they came to love in their childhoods.

It was then that she had an idea — she would set up a radio show dedicated to re-examining Wilson’s works.

Every Wednesday at 5 PM on STAR: St Andrews Radio, Smoli hosts ‘BOG OFF!’, where each week, she reflects on a different Wilson book, usually with a guest by her side. Together, they reflect on the work’s impact on her worldview, controversies surrounding the protagonists, and how their opinions on the author have evolved over time. 

“You don’t really remember how disturbing some of her books were until you really sit down and think about it,” Smoli said.

As she’s gotten older, Smoli feels she’s gained a deeper awareness of the themes embedded in Wilson's books. Upon revisiting the literature, she couldn’t believe she eagerly consumed some of the works at such a young age given their unsettling themes. 

“I read the books way too young,” she said. “I think some of the books that she published are good but it's so irresponsible to market them towards the age range that she did.”

Though she acknowledges Wilson's commendable effort in addressing real-life issues faced by young girls, Smoli questions the author's portrayal of certain topics — especially eating disorders. She argues that often Wilson’s depictions were more harmful than helpful. 

“You can write [about] eating disorders in a way that spreads awareness,” said Smoli. “[It is] very surface level, but very dangerous the way that she writes some things.” 

Some elements within the narratives, she says, appear gratuitous, inserted solely for shock value. To prove just how often these themes appear, Smoli points to a digital bingo board she devised for herself and her guests to check off certain tropes that appear in each book: ‘teen mum’, ‘cancer’, ‘daddy issues’, and ‘alcoholism’ are just a few of the keywords to grace the board.

The bingo board, however, isn’t the only tradition Smoli has introduced on ‘BOG OFF!’. At the end of each show, Smoli asks her guests a divisive question.

“On three, me and my guest, or guests, decide whether, for this book alone, Jacqueline Wilson deserves an OBE or jail time,” said Smoli, laughing. 

But, for all of Wilson’s flaws, Smoli can’t deny the power of her writing. After all, Smoli admits that — more often than not — she votes in favour of Wilson receiving an OBE.

“Sure, sometimes there’s plot holes and she doesn’t quite wrap up everything at the end right or the characters don’t make sense,” Smoli said, “but she knows how to pull an emotion out of me.”

Since the show’s premiere in October 2022, Smoli has discussed over 25 of Wilson’s books on air. She’s hosted episodes where she’s laughed, cried, argued, and forged new friendships. 

But beyond examining Wilson’s troubling themes and outlandish plot points, Smoli said she hosts her radio show to provide herself with a source of escapism from the dull realities of adulthood.

Smoli argues that, now more than ever, nostalgia is a huge part of life for girls ages 18 to 21. It’s no wonder, she says, that low-waisted jeans and pocket digital cameras have made such a strong comeback, and that as we sit in Rector’s Cafe, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ — a 2000s anthem — appropriately serenades our conversation. 

“I think it’s really comforting to look back on what in our minds was a simpler time when we were children and we didn’t have to worry about getting a job or a degree and we didn't even know, like what the price of eggs was,” Smoli said. “Was it in the middle of a financial crisis? Sure, but I was nine and I didn't know that.”

Re-reading Wilson’s books, Smoli says, has given her a chance to connect with her younger self and unearth the memories that are so often lost along life’s path. 

“I find it really fun to revisit things that have impacted us throughout our lives but were kind of pushed to the shadows,” Smoli said. “It was only when I was in first year talking to that girl and reminiscing on all of these books that I really realised how much of it I just stored in my subconscious.”

For some it’s the smell of a freshly opened pot of Play-Doh; for others, the taste of a pink strip of Hubba Bubba Bubble Tape. But for Smoli, it’s the candy-coloured covers of Wilson’s books that spark her childhood memories. 

“It’s so nostalgic,” Smoli said. “I feel like I am 9 years old putting on my little rubber glittery shoes.”

Illustration: Hannah Beggerow