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Britain's bestselling author, Julia Donaldson, joins Vernon to select her ten Tracks Of My Years ahead of World Book Day on 5th March 2026.

Julia is the brilliant writer behind an incredibly successful series of children's books, including The Gruffalo, Stick Man, Zog, Room on the Broom, The Smeds and the Smoos, and many more. Her books have sold more than 50 million copies and have been translated into over a hundred languages and dialects across the world.

Born in 1948 and raised in north London, Julia was creative from a young age; inspired to write and perform after her father gave her the collection A Book of 1,000 Poems. At just 12, she landed an understudy role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bristol Old Vic alongside a young Judi Dench. She studied drama in Bristol and met her future husband Malcolm in 1969 when spending a summer in Paris. Together with other friends, they busked all over Europe, including performing songs that Julia would write. Back in the UK, she began writing music for children's television in the 70s, and it was this that led to her first book. A publisher asked Julia if she was interested in turning one of her songs into a book – ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’ was then published in 1993.

In 1999, she published The Gruffalo, inspired by a Chinese folk tale. It's become a well-loved classic and was followed by the sequel The Gruffalo's Child in 2004. Together, the two books have sold 18.2 million copies in 115 languages and dialects. Many of Julia's books have also been adapted into animations by the Â鶹Éç, most recently The Scarecrows' Wedding at Christmas.

Every week on Tracks Of My Years, a guest joins Vernon Kay for an in-depth conversation about their life, selecting the ten songs that have soundtracked that time so far.

A Â鶹Éç Audio production for Â鶹Éç Radio 2.