Susan Lillian Townsend (born 2 April 1946) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
novelist and
playwrightA playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors...
, best known as the author of the
Adrian MoleAdrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
books. Her writing often combines comedy with social commentary, though she has written purely dramatic works as well.
Biography
Townsend was born in
LeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England. It is the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
and went to Glen Hills Primary school, where the school secretary was Mrs Claricotes, a name she used for the school secretary in the Adrian Mole books. Her father was a postman and she was the eldest of five sisters. After failing her 11-plus exam, Townsend then went to the secondary modern
South WigstonSouth Wigston is a suburb of Leicester in England. It is outside of the city boundary, forming part of the Oadby and Wigston district of Leicestershire.-Geography and administration:...
High School. She left school at the age of 15 and worked in a variety of jobs including factory worker and shop assistant. She married a sheet-metal worker and had three children under five by the time she was 22. She joined a writers' group at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester in her thirties. She has four children: Sean, Daniel, Victoria and Elizabeth.
At the time of writing the first Adrian Mole book, Townsend was living on the Saffron Lane Estate, a stone's-throw away from the house in which playwright
Joe OrtonJohn Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
was brought up.
The growing pains of Adrian Mole was reputedly based on her children's experiences at
Mary Linwood Comprehensive SchoolMary Linwood Comprehensive School was a secondary school located in the English city of Leicester.The school was an all girls school till 1976 when it started to admit boys from the, closing, Linwood Boys school, the last year of all girls left in 1980...
in
LeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England. It is the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. Several of the teachers who appear in the book (such as Ms Fossington-Gore and Mr Dock) are based on actual staff who worked at the school in the early 1980s. When the book was televised, it was mostly filmed at a different school nearby. Mary Linwood Comprehensive was closed in 1997.
The first two books in the series appealed to many readers as a realistic and humorous treatment of the inner life of an adolescent boy. They also captured something of the
zeitgeistZeitgeist is a German language expression referring to "the spirit of the times" and/or "the spirit of the age." The word Zeitgeist is used to describe the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general...
of Britain during the
ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
period.
Townsend has suffered from diabetes for many years, as a result of which she was registered
blindBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
in 2001, and has woven this theme into her work.
On February 25, 2009,
Leicester City CouncilLeicester City Council is a unitary authority responsible for local government in the city of Leicester, England. It consists of 54 councillors, representing 22 wards in the city. It is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Ross Willmott...
announced that Townsend will be given the Honorary Freedom of Leicester (where she still lives) alongside singer
Engelbert HumperdinckEngelbert Humperdinck is a well-known British popular music singer who became famous internationally during the 1960s and 1970s, after adopting the name of the famous German opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck as his own stage name.-Early years:He was one of ten children of British Army officer...
and former professional footballer
Alan BirchenallAlan Birchenall MBE is a retired English footballer who played during the 1960s and 1970s.A talented and much travelled player. Alan was a skilful attacking midfielder who started his professional career with Sheffield United in 1963...
.
Awards
Novels: Adrian Mole Series
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ is the first book in the Adrian Mole series of comedic fiction, written by Sue Townsend. It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenager who believes himself to be an intellectual...
(1982), her best selling book, and the best-selling new British fiction book of the 1980s.
- The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, a novel by Sue Townsend, is the second book in the Adrian Mole series, following on from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾. It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage intellectual...
(1984)
- The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole
The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lillian Townsend is the third book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend. It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage intellectual...
(1989)
- Adrian Mole From Minor to Major (1991) is an omnibus of the first three, and includes as a bonus the specially written Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians.
- Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years
Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years is the fourth book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend. It focuses on the worries of the, now, adult Mole. The book was first published in 1993 by Methuen...
(1993)
- Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years is the fifth book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend. The book was first published in 1999 by Michael Joseph. It is set from April 30,1997 until May 2, 1998. Adrian is 30 years of age...
(1999)
- Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction
Published in 2004 by Penguin Books, Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction is Sue Townsend's sixth full Adrian Mole novel and the confirmed finale. It is set in 2002/3 and Adrian is 33¾ years of age...
(2004)
- The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001
Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
(2008)
- Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years
Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years is the ninth installment in the popular Adrian Mole Series. In an interview on Leicester hospital station Radio Fox on 5 June 2008, Sue Townsend said that she was writing a new Mole book entitled 'The Prostrate Years' which was likely to be published in Spring 2009...
(2009)
Novels: other works
- Rebuilding Coventry
Rebuilding Coventry is a 1988 novel written by Sue Townsend about a woman from Middle England who is accused of murdering her neighbour and goes on the run to London, and captures the zeitgeist of England in the 1980s....
(1988)
- The Queen and I
The Queen and I is a 1992 novel/play written by Sue Townsend.The setting is the UK, after the 1992 General Election, where the House of Windsor has just been deprived of its Royal status by the People's Republican Party and its members are made to live like normal Britons.After a People's...
(1992), a story about the British royal familyImage:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Members of the Royal Family gathered for a dinner celebrating the 60th wedding anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh Image:Roy-fam-2007.jpg|right|500px|thumb|Members of the Royal Family gathered for a dinner...
living a normal life on an urban housing estate following a republican revolution.
- Ghost Children (1997), a non-comedic novel
- Number Ten (2002)
- Queen Camilla
Queen Camilla is a novel by the British author Sue Townsend.It was published in the UK on 26 October 2006 by Penguin Books and is a follow-up to her novel The Queen and I...
(2006)
Plays
- Womberang (Soho Poly - 1979)
- The Ghost of Daniel Lambert (Leicester Haymarket Theatre - 1981) Theatre closed in January 2007
- Dayroom (Croydon Warehouse Theatre - 1981)
- Captain Christmas and the Evil Adults (Phoenix Arts Theatre - 1982) now known as the Phoenix Arts Centre
The Phoenix Arts Centre is a theatre in the city centre of Leicester, England. The centre hosts live shows and films of the arthouse and world cinema genres.- History :...
- Bazaar and Rummage (Royal Court Theatre - 1982)
- Groping for Words (Croydon Warehouse - 1983)
- The Great Celestial Cow (Royal Court Theatre and tour - 1984)
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4-The Play (Leicester Phoenix - 1984) now know as Phoenix Arts Centre
The Phoenix Arts Centre is a theatre in the city centre of Leicester, England. The centre hosts live shows and films of the arthouse and world cinema genres.- History :...
- Disneyland it Ain't (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs - 1989)
- Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes (Library Theatre, Manchester - 1989)
- The Queen and I
The Queen and I is a 1992 novel/play written by Sue Townsend.The setting is the UK, after the 1992 General Election, where the House of Windsor has just been deprived of its Royal status by the People's Republican Party and its members are made to live like normal Britons.After a People's...
(Vaudeville Theatre - 1994, toured Australia in the summer of 1996 and was entitled The Royals Down Under)
Non-fiction
- Mr Bevan's Dream: Why Britain Needs Its Welfare State (1989)
- The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (2001)
External links