Sue Townsend’s hilarious, insightful Adrian Mole stories are classics. Her razor-sharp wit and astute observations probably summed up the Eighties better than anyone else and there’s no doubt that her books will be read as avidly by future generations as they have been by ours. Like her legions of fans, I was saddened to hear the news of her death last night. I’m re-running this post from an interview she ...keep reading
Sue Townsend doesn’t give many interviews so I was determined not to miss her appearance at the Oxford Literary Festival this week. She’s 66 now, registered blind, confined to a wheelchair and suffered a stroke at Christmas. But for a whole glorious hour, her anecdotes about her childhood, her work and how she came to write her Adrian Mole books made the audience at the Sheldonian Theatre rock with laughter. ...keep reading
It’s hard to believe that this year marks the 30th anniversary of Sue Townsend’s bestselling The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾. It seems no time at all since I first read it and so many details, from Adrian’s spots to his obsession with Pandora Braithwaite, have stayed in my head to this day. Penguin has just brought out a special edition of the book to celebrate (with ...keep reading