How Sussex inspired Jacqueline Wilson's new book

Dame Jacqueline Wilson has described her latest children's book as one of her favourites she has ever written.

The 80-year-old award-winning author, who lives in East Sussex, has written more than 100 books, with her latest novel, Esme Pepper, to be published on Thursday.

It follows a girl who enters foster care after her mother is caught stealing and features gnomes named after garden centres local to where she resides.

"People might think, 'you've done the same old thing', because it's about another child in care. But Esme is a sparky girl, a bit naughty – she's not like Tracy Beaker," Wilson said.

Wilson added: "I was checking some of the garden centres to see whether they still had certain kinds of gnomes – which made me quite popular with my partner Trish, as she loves gardening."

She then gave the gnomes names like Hilliers and Staverton, describing it as "a little in-joke for anyone from East Sussex".

In the novel, when a foster placement proves hard to find, Esme gets put in the care of a retired foster couple. She must navigate the troubles of a new home, new school and missing her mother.

As an ambassador for the East Sussex Foster Care Association, Wilson said that she often got "caught up" in issues affecting children who did not have conventional family backgrounds.

Reflecting on her life in the South East, she said: "I just love East Sussex. I'm a poster girl for East Sussex."

Referencing the countryside walks on offer, she added: "In the ten years we've been here, we have only been on holiday once, simply because we always liked to go somewhere quite near the sea, with beautiful countryside and quirky villages – and it's got it all here."

Wilson has won numerous literary awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Smarties Prize. She was also appointed a Dame in 2008 for her services to children's literature.

She said that the creation of Tracy Beaker "really changed me", revealing that she even owned Tracy Beaker pyjamas.

Despite decades of success, the author said that she had milestones she hoped to achieve and was currently working on a sequel to Esme Pepper, as well as a third adult novel exploring what happens to characters from her children's books as they grow older.

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