Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend was born in Leicester, England. Her parents were bus drivers but had a great love for reading. At the age of 15, she left school ("because everyone did," as she says) and worked in various jobs, including as a sales assistant, a book peddler, and even at a gas station. However, she adored reading and secretly wrote without showing her writings to anyone. "It was like living a double life, having my own world, escaping into books and writing secretly at night," Townsend now says. In 1978, after her marriage ended, she joined the playwright group at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester and publicly presented her work for the first time. She wrote "Womberang" and won the Thames Television Playwright Award. Since then, she has written many plays that have been staged in various English theaters or adapted for television. Her major success came with "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾." The eventful life of Adrian Mole is based on her personal experiences from her own adolescence, marriage, and divorce. Her "Diary" series became a bestseller, translated into many languages, and adapted for theater, radio, and television. Today, Sue Townsend is one of England's most renowned authors, with works such as "Dayroom," "Bazaar and Rummage," "Groping for Words," and "The Great Celestial Cow," which have been major theatrical successes.