The multi-million selling Adrian Mole series documenting the hum-drum life of an awkward teenager, British author Sue Townsend has died aged 68, her son told the BBC on Friday. Her son Danny Townsend confirmed that the novelist had died at home on Thursday after a short illness.
In 1946, Townsend was born in the central England city of Leicester. At 23 she contracted TB peritonitis, in her 30s she had a heart attack, suffered from Charcot’s joint-degenerative arthritis – confining her to a wheelchair – and in the 1980s she lost her sight after being diagnosed with diabetes.
She definitely was a fighter, in 2009 she underwent a kidney transplant, with her eldest son Sean donating one of his organs, and suffered a stroke over Christmas 2012.
Writer and journalist Caitlin Moran was one of many stars who paid tribute on Twitter, writing: “One of the funniest women who ever lived.”
Comedy writer Danny Wallace said: “Farewell, brilliant Sue Townsend. Rest in peace, Adrian Mole” while playwright Simon Stephens added: “I met Sue Townsend. Very early in my career. She was much more inspiring than I thought she would be and I thought she would be amazing.”
Stand-up comedian Sarah Millican tweeted: “Such sad news about Sue Townsend. Just about to start reading ‘The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year’. Will do so now with a heavier heart.”
Actor Stephen Mangan said: “Greatly upset to hear that Sue Townsend has died. One of the warmest, funniest and wisest people I ever met” while crime writer Ian Rankin described her death as “a real loss”.
She was Britain’s top-selling author of the 1980s.
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