Sue Townsend
Sue Townsend
Susan Lillian "Sue" Townsend, FRSLwas an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth2 April 1946
became carried five hardly slept
I became an insomniac, really, hardly slept at all, didn't even try to. And it's carried on. I hate to say I only need as much sleep as Mrs. Thatcher, but I can cope really well on five hours.
easily quite
I seem to be able to get depressed quite easily without any reason.
hard laugh life
I take life very seriously. I can laugh at it, because what else can you do? But it's a hard daily battle.
bite call harmless people takes
I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure.' It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador.
barbara dame furs grand people taylor
I always feel as if I'm a disappointment: that people want a grand dame in furs like Barbara Taylor Bradford.
certain easier maintain people
I am a very independent person, and I, you know, I maintain that independence, but, you know, certain things - I mean, it takes, you know, it's just much easier for other people if other people can help you every now and again.
home kids midnight
When all my kids were at home, I used to write from midnight onwards.
encouraged group husband local second
My second husband encouraged me to go to a writing group at our local theatre. It was my 'coming out of the closet' moment.
cream people
My cream and black Aga. It is the heart of the house, and people congregate around it.
best deserve help people sit social staff thousands train workers
People down on their luck deserve the best: beautiful surroundings and well-paid professional staff to help them out of their difficulties. Why not train thousands more social workers and let them sit in on claimants' interviews?
admirer fascinated
I've always been fascinated by totalitarian regimes. I'm not an admirer of them.
listen violin
I usually listen to the same thing over and over again: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. And Leonard Cohen.
books days eight fortnight house library
We had library books in our house, but not our own. So you had 14 days to read them. There would be eight books a fortnight in our house and I'd read as many of those as I could.
evil good led possible realised russian time
'The Gambler' by Dostoevsky. It was the first time I realised that it was possible to have good and evil in one person. It led me to read a lot of Russian literature.