Sue Townsend (1946 to 2014) was an English writer and humorist who created one of the best-loved characters in modern British fiction: Adrian Mole. She wrote in secret from the age of 14 and first made her name as a playwright – Adrian himself first appeared in a radio drama – before the diaries took on a life of their own. During the 1980s her Adrian Mole books outsold every other work of fiction in Britain, and the series eventually ran to nine volumes, following its hero from teenage angst in the Thatcher years to the indignities of middle age.
Townsend knew hardship at first hand – she was poor until well into her thirties – and that experience runs right through her writing. Her republican sympathies found an outlet in The Queen and I, published in 1992, which imagined the Royal Family with mischief but genuine warmth; like the first Mole book, it transferred to the West End stage and enjoyed a successful run. Her later years were shadowed by ill health, including diabetes and serious problems with her sight and mobility.
3 hours and 6 minutes
