Sue Townsend

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Sue Townsend
Born April 2, 1946 (1946-04-02) (age 62)
Leicester, England
Occupation Novelist,
Playwright,
Screenwriter,
Columnist
Genres Drama, Fiction, Screenplay

Susan Lillian "Sue" Townsend (born April 2, 1946) is a British novelist, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole series of books. Her writing tends to combine comedy with social commentary, though she has written purely dramatic works as well. She has suffered from diabetes for many years, as a result of which she was registered blind in 2001,[1] and has woven this theme into her work.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946 and went to Glen Hills Primary school, where the school secretary was Mrs Claricotes, a name she used for the school secretary in the books. Her father was a postman and she was the eldest of three sisters. After failing her 11-plus exam, Townsend then went to the secondary modern South Wigston High School.[2] 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.[3][1]

She has four children: Sean, Daniel, Victoria and Elizabeth.

At the time of writing the first Mole book, Sue Townsend was living on the Saffron Lane Estate, a stone's-throw away from the house in which gay playwright Joe Orton was brought up.

Due to her blindness, Townsend has confirmed that Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction is the final book in the series.

[edit] Awards

Year Award
1981 Thames Television Playwright Award for Womberang
2003 Frink award[4][5]
2007 Two honorary doctorates, one from the University of Leicester and one from Loughborough University[6]
2007 James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin

[edit] Importance

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole was reputedly based on her children's experiences at Mary Linwood Comprehensive School in Leicester. Several of the teachers who appear in the book (such as Mr. Dock and Miss Fossington-Gore) 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 zeitgeist of Britain during the Thatcher period.

[edit] Works

[edit] Novels:Adrian Mole Series

[edit] Novels:Other Works

[edit] 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
  • 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
  • Disneyland it Ain't (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs - 1989)
  • Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes (Library Theatre, Manchester - 1989)
  • The Queen and I (Vaudeville Theatre - 1994, toured Australia in the summer of 1996 and was entitled The Royals Down Under)

[edit] Non-fiction

  • Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman aged 55 3/4 (2001)

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b White, Lesley (2006-10-15). Sue Townsend. The Times. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  2. ^ Collier, Kate (2005-02-18). Leicester's leading ladies. BBC. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  3. ^ Sky Arts: The Book Show. Skyarts.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  4. ^ Sue Townsend - Woman of the Year Award. BBC (2003-10-14). Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  5. ^ Women of The Year Lunch and Assembly. womenoftheyear.co.uk. Retrieved on 2008-02-01.
  6. ^ Summer 2007 Oration - Sue Townsend. Loughborough University (2007-07-20). Retrieved on 2008-02-01.

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Townsend, Sue
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Townsend, Susan Lillian
SHORT DESCRIPTION English Novelist,, Playwright,, Screenwriter,, Columnist
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Leicester, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH