Friday 11 April 2014

We Should Have Called You Brett!


"Nigel says that Sharon Botts will show you everything for 50p and a pound of grapes."

The news of the death of Sue Townsend this morning has upset me deeply. Famous people die, and we commiserate and feel it a shame. And that's it. But I loved Sue Townsend. I thought she was marvellous. I think she would have thought me a berk for thinking that. She always seemed like she wouldn't suffer fools gladly, which was another thing about her I admired. She was one of several woman who had a huge impact on the teenage me, growing up in 80s Britain.

For any of you that aren't familiar with her, Sue Townsend was a British writer, who found fame as the creator of the eponymous Adrian Mole. Adrian kept a diary, and he started it when he was 13 and 3/4. I am a year younger than Adrian, and so his teenage years parallelled mine. I have also kept a diary since I was a teen. Spots, The Falklands War, unrequited love, poetry, underwhelming Christmas presents and general angst were Adrian's trademark. Mine was probably very similar at his age. Apart from The Falklands. I was never as politically motivated as Adrian. My diary contained more Duran Duran and less Margaret Thatcher.

"I have just realised that I have never seen a dead body or a real female nipple.
 This is what comes of living in a cul-de-sac."

Although marketed as children's fiction, it still moves me at forty four. I love her acid comedy, her ease at addressing 'difficult' issues and the way that she didn't patronise or talk down to kids. I have often felt that without her there would have been no JK Rowling. Not in this country anyway. I wonder if the parents who put her books into their children's Christmas stockings knew that they contained such strong opinions on the British class system, politics, feminism and losing ones virginity.

"Donkey Dawkins of 5P says that his thing comes off the end of a ruler."

When many of my class mates were reading about Judy Blume's Margaret and her periods, I was reading about Adrian and his love of Pandora Braithwaite. I cried tears of laughter at the poem he penned for her (Pandora, I adore ya!). At thirteen I, too, was a fledgling poet. I had written my best poem to date, and was convinced that I was just waiting to be discovered. So did Adrian. He realised that he was an intellectual at about the same time that I did. Alas for both of us, no-one else recognised it

 "I am an intellectual. But at the same time, I'm not very clever."

I still have my Adrian Mole books - The Secret Diary, The Growing Pains, The Cappuccino Years, The Prostate Years. They are dogged eared and cherished. I have read them more times I have read Pride & Prejudice or Jane Eyre.

If our whole is the sum of our parts, then a little part of me belongs to Sue Townsend.

Leanne xx






16 comments:

  1. I never got into Adrian Mole when I was young but I love your homage and it makes me wish to give them another whirl.

    It is odd how profoundly sad we can become when a beloved author we felt a connection with dies. I was quite devastated when Maeve Binchy died as her soft, gentle books accompanied by discovery of Ireland when I was younger so I can completely understand your feelings of loss for a writer with whom you linked.

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  2. I don't know this author or the book, but I think I would have enjoyed it. I just recently heard of the death of an author I loved, who also happened to have attended the same college I did though I didn't know this until after I'd read all of his books. It made me really sad to hear he'd died, especially since I'd been meaning to write to him for awhile. I shouldn't have procrastinated about it.

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  3. I loved all of the Adrian Mole books, it is such a shame that Sue Townsend won't be able to pen any more adventures about him as he grew older. I am of a similar age to Adrian Mole too and liked reading his viewpoint on the things that were going on in the world and his life. It is a sad loss. xx

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  4. The Secret Diary was the first ever English book I read and I loved it, and the teacher for letting us read something that would resonate with us. This is a beautiful homage. Cx

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  5. I remember reading the first one - in fact I'm sure I had that exact copy - but I must admit that Judy Blume was much more my thing. A lot of the political references passed me by but having read your extracts above, I find myself laughing at her wit. X

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  6. I loved it too though, being so ancient, I was actually teaching when it first came out. So sad that she died so young. Adrian seems to appeal to teenagers today too. My daughter loved it.

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  7. That is a really great tribute Leanne. I missed out completely on those books.... How can that have happened. But,just by reading your post this morning I am going to address that. What a shame you never got to meet her. I think you would have got on famously x

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  8. oh i didnt realise! great sadness here as well, ie cho all yoou said in this beautiful tribute, i too was a child of the 80's and adored everything about adrian mole, i also cried with laughter reading these books as did my twin brother! Such sad news of an awesome writers passing xxx

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  9. What a lovely post. I'm currently reading' The Woman who went to Bed for a Year', very funny xx

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  10. I'm sad she's gone too ... I'm a few years older than you but Adrian still made an impact on the emerging adult I was. Lovely post Leanne. RIP Sue T.

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  11. A wonderful tribute to Sue. Being a few years older than you I first came across Sue's work when she wrote a weekly Adrian Mole article in the Guardian. My son loved reading her books too when he reached his teenage years. Have your oldest boys read them? Sarah x

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  12. Her writing is so effortlessly and cuttingly funny, I love it. I remember reading Adrian Mole way back when and loving it. She was so very talented, and her death is a great loss. I've really enjoyed reading your post Leanne, a lovely tribute which I am sure she would have appreciated.

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  13. yes I have that exact copy too, and i read it at about 13 and three quarters! very funny, I also read the Woman who went to bed for a year recently, which was another strange and wonderful read! great post, Heather x

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  14. I loved Adrian too, although I was in my 'twenties when he was in his teens. I must track down his adult years. Sad that she has passed away.

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  15. I was a big Adrian Mole fan too Leanne.The books made me laugh out loud.

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  16. I loved Adrian Mole as a teenager (or tweenie - can't remember now). I was gutted because there was a tv series too but it wasn't broadcast in South Africa because of the Equity Ban. I recently read The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year. It was good. x

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