Sue Townsend – författare

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2ndI felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' HeatSue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYFEATURED IN 'THE 100 BOOKS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD' BBC ARTS The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. Friday January 2ndI felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared._________'I remember laughing hysterically at The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. An authentic working-class voice' David Nicholls, Guardian'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole is the second book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series.Sunday July 18thMy father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched. In this second instalment of teenager Adrian Mole's diaries, the Mole family is in crisis and the country is beating the drum of war. While his parents have reconciled after both embarked on disastrous affairs, Adrian is shocked to learn of his mother's pregnancy. And even though at the mercy of his rampant hormones and the fickle whims of the divine Pandora, a victim of a broken home and his own tortured (though unrecognised) genius, Adrian continues valiantly to chronicle the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence. ________'Funny, moving and a poke in the eye for adult morality' Sunday Express 'Written with great verve, and showing an uncanny understanding of the young, Sue Townsend holds the balance between innocence and precocity and the result is both hilarious and salutary' Daily Telegraph 'Life's no fun for an adolescent intellectual. For the reader it's a hoot' New Statesman

'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday TimesIn the third instalment of the hilarious Adrian Mole series, 16-year-old Adrian navigates his way into adulthood . . . Monday June 13th I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike. Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . .__________'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

'A classic. The Adrian Mole diaries are thoroughly subversive. A true hero for our time' Richard Ingrams'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYThe FOURTH book in Adrian Mole's diaries, where we catch up with a hapless Adrian and his desperate attempts to win back the love of his life.__________Thursday January 3rdI have the most terrible problems with my sex life. It all boils down to the fact that I have no sex life. At least not with another person.Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the unenviable situation of living with the love-of-his-life as she goes about shacking up with other men. Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped.But Adrian is about to discover that extraordinary and wonderful things may blossom even in the wilderness . . .__________'A very, very funny book' Sunday Times'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

'One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book' Daily Mirror'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYThe fifth book in his hilarious diaries, where Adrian faces divorce, fatherhood and (short-lived) television stardom . . . __________Adrian Mole is thirty, single and a father. His cooking at a top London restaurant has been equally mocked ('the sausage on my plate could have been a turd') and celebrated (will he be the nation's first celebrity offal chef?). And the love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is too busy as the newly elected MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch to notice him.Frustrated, disappointed and undersexed, Adrian despairs until a letter from his past changes everything . . .__________'With the Mole books, Townsend has an unrivalled claim to be this country's foremost practising comic novelist' Mail on Sunday'Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran'Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him' Evening Standard

The ORIGINAL teenage diarist is back in the second book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny, touching and bestselling Adrian Mole series. 'If I turn out to be mentally deranged in adult life, it will be all my mother's fault.'Adrian Mole continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life in this second volume of his secret diary.'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat

'Hilarious and totally Townsend. There were parts where I laughed until I cried' Daily Mail What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year?Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be. The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance.Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads.Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street. While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . .Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly'A funny, poignant look at modern family life' Daily Express

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series, reissued in Penguin's ORIGINALS collection of iconic teen fiction.Friday January 2ndI felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared. Praise for Adrian Mole (and by extension, Sue Townsend): 'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat-----Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, as well as The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She also wrote numerous well-received plays.

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary.The Secret Life of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, a Level 3 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing first conditional, past continuous and present perfect simple for general experience. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages.Adrian Mole is a 13-year-old boy. Adrian writes a diary about his school, his family and, of course, love. "There's a new girl in our class . . . I think I might love her. I am 13 ¾ years old, so I'm old enough for love!"Visit the Penguin Readers websiteExclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

The Royals Are Out of Office.The Sunday roast is burnt, the corgis are gone, and the monarchy’s gone Midlands — a hilarious British classic from the author of Adrian Mole--The Royals, they're just like us . . .THE MONARCHY HAS BEEN DISMANTLEDWhen a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands.Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed.But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else?____________'No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact' The Times'Absorbing, entertaining . . . the funniest thing in print since Adrian Mole' Daily Telegraph'Kept me rolling about until the last page' Daily Mail

Number Ten is the brilliantly funny political satire by Sue Townsend, bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series'Wickedly entertaining. There is a gem on nearly every page. Nothing escapes Townsend's withering pen. Satirical, witty, observant' Observer____________Behind the doors of the most famous address in the country, all is not well.Edward Clare was voted into Number Ten after a landslide election victory. But a few years later and it is all going wrong.The love of the people is gone. The nation is turning against him.Panicking, Prime Minister Clare enlists the help of Jack Sprat, the policeman on the door of No 10, and sets out to discover what the country really thinks of him. In disguise, they venture into the great unknown: the mean streets of Great Britain.And for the first time in years, the Prime Minister experiences everything life in this country has to offer - an English cream tea, the kindness of strangers, waiting for trains that never come and treatment in a hospital. And at last he remembers some of things he once really cared about . . ._____________'Poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating' New Statesman'Hilarious. Sue Townsend's laughter is infectious' Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

THE BRILLIANTLY FUNNY SEQUEL TO THE QUEEN AND I FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ADRIAN MOLE SERIESWhat if being Royal was a crime?The UK has come over all republican. The Royal Family exiled to an Exclusion Zone with the other villains and spongers. And to cap it all, the Queen has threatened to abdicate.Yet Prince Charles is more interested in root vegetables than reigning ... unless his wife Camilla can be Queen in a newly restored monarchy. But when a scoundrel who claims to be the couple's secret love-child offers to take the crown off their hands, the stage is set for a right Royal show down.And the question for Camilla (and rest of the country) will be: Queen of the vegetable patch or Queen of England?_____________'Brilliantly satirical' Evening Standard'One of our finest living comic writers' The Times'Brilliantly funny' Closer'Another fantastic read from Townsend' OK!

Ghost Children is a compassionate and gritty examination of love and loss from one of Britain's most-loved writers, Sue TownsendHow can she leave the past behind when he won't let her?Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and he retreated from the world. Unable to accept what had happened between them both went their separate ways.However, when Christopher makes a horrifying discovery whilst out walking his dog on the heath he finds that he is compelled to confront Angela about the past. As they start seeing each another again can they avoid the mistakes of the past? And will their future together be eclipsed by those mistakes of yesterday?'Gripping and disturbing. Utterly absorbing' Independent'Bleak, tender and deeply affecting. Seldom have I rooted so hard for a set of fictional individuals' Mail on Sunday'Leaves one gasping for more' Daily Telegraph'Engrossing, memorable and moving' Guardian'Startling and raw' Observer

'An achingly funny anti-hero' Daily Mail'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYIn the SIXTH book in Sue Townsend's hilarious and iconic series, Adrian, Leicester's most unlikely ex-con, faces the nit-infested reality of being a single parent . . . __________Monday January 3, 2000So how do I greet the New Millennium? In despair. I'm a single parent, I live with my mother . . . I have a bald spot the size of a jaffa cake on the back of my head . . . I can't go on like this, drifting into early middle-age. I need a Life Plan . . . The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian Mole has become a martyr: a single-father bringing up two young boys in an uncaring world. With the ever-unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother Brett sponging off him; and literary success elusive, Adrian tries to make ends meet and find a purpose.But little does he realise that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror . . .__________'One of the great comic creations of our time. Almost every page of his diaries bring a smile to the face' Scotsman'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

The sensational final instalment in comic legend Sue Townsend's hilarious and iconic Adrian Mole series'Effortlessly hilarious. Brilliant satire and tragedy' Times'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYRead as Adrian continues to struggle with his love life, endures a painfully awkward school play and contemplates the unsettling prospect of applying genital poultice . . .__________Sunday 1st JulyNO SMOKING DAY. A momentous day! Smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden in England. Though if you are a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt.Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well.The secondhand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography (A Girl Called Shit). And Adrian's nightly trips to the lavatory have become alarmingly frequent . . .This laugh-out-loud final chapter in Adrian's story will have you hooked from the first page as you discover what he gets up to next.__________'A tour de force by a comic genius and if it isn't the best book published this year, I'll eat my bookshelf' Daily Mail, Books of the Year'Hilarious. Comic gold' Sunday Times'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAYThe hilarious SEVENTH BOOK in Sue Townsend's bestselling series, sees Adrian fall in love, be inconvenienced by the war and face his new nemesis: a swan from the local canal . . . _____________Wednesday April 2ndMy birthday.I am thirty-five today. I am officially middle-aged. It is all downhill from now. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death. Adrian Mole is middle-aged but still scribbling. Working as a bookseller and living in Leicester's Rat Wharf; finding time to write letters of advice to Tim Henman and Tony Blair; locked in mortal combat with a vicious swan called Gielgud; measuring his expanding bald spot; and trying to win-over the voluptuous Daisy . . . Adrian yearns for a better more meaningful world. But he's not ready to surrender his pen yet...______________'Hilarious. Deft, gleeful mockery impales modish fads, from home make-overs to new-age crazes, while fiercer irony is trained on the country's involvement with Iraq' Sunday Times 'Richly comic ... stuffed full of humour, tragedy, vanity, pathos and, very occasionally, wisdom' Guardian'Completely hilarious, laugh-out-loud, a joy' Daily Mirror

Glimpse into the life of one of Britain's best-loved comic writers - Sue Townsend - with this hilarious collection of her anecdotes and musings. ___________Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend - all our welcome! This sparkling collection of Sue Townsend's hilarious non-fiction covers everything from hosepipe bans to Spanish restaurants, from writer's block to slug warfare, from slob holidays to the banning of beige.These funny, perceptive and touching pieces reveal Sue, ourselves and the nation in an extraordinary new light. Sit back and chortle away as one of Britain's most popular and acclaimed writers takes a feather to your funny bone.Witty, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾) is essential reading for any Sue Townsend fan. _____________'Anyone who loved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole will enjoy this collection of witty and sharply observed jottings from the inimitable Sue Townsend. Great stuff' OK!'Full of homely, hilarious asides on the absurdities of domestic existence . . . What a fantastic advertisement for middle-age - it can't be bad if it's this funny' Heat'A welcome addition to any bookshelf' Hello!'It's as if Townsend has caught our idiosyncrasies on candid camera and is showing a rerun of all the silly clips . . . the ideal dip-in-and-out book' Time Out

Play version of this novel that was a hit with adults and teenagers alike In his secret diary, British teenager Adrian Mole excruciatingly details every morsel of his turbulent adolescence. Mixed in with daily reports about the zit sprouting on his chin are heartrending passages about his parents' chaotic marriage. Adrian sees all, and he has something to say about everything. Delightfully self-centered, Adrian is the sort of teenager who could rule a much better world--if only his crazy relatives and classmates would get out of his way. Sue Townsend's play is based on her internationally best-selling book, was created for the Phoenix Arts Leicester, where it received its first production in Septmeber 1984. This volume contains the complete text of the play with introductory notes on the staging by the author; the complete words of the lyrics and music for the melody line of each of the tunes.

A play by one of Britain's best-selling writers "Set in the year 2001 where the class system is numbered from one to five and only the upperclasses are allowed to breed, Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes is about the births of a perfect but illegal 'class five' baby, and an imperfect 'government' baby bought by a 'class three' mother and exterminated at birth because of her nine toes...compulsive viewing...insanity is served up as commen sense - to sinister effect." Kate Kellaway, Observer

A play by one of Britain's best-selling writers When Sita and her children leave India to join her husband in England, she is forced to sell her cow, but she keeps her milking bucket in the hope that she will be able to buy another cow in Leicester. But England is nothing like she expected: faced with prejudice from the English and restrictions of tradition from her family, Sita clings to the dream of the cow and some sense of her own identity."The Great Celestial Cow is a little gem...It's very funny, touching, telling and moving...here is a story with much to say...I kept bursting into spontaneous applause." Robin Thornber, Guardian

A play by one of Britain's best-selling writers Bazaar and Rummage brings together a neurotic do-gooder, a trainee social worker and three agoraphobics who have been persuaded to venture out of their homes to run a jumble sale. "As a study of agoraphobia, Bazaar and Rummage...is written with great verve, style and wit." (Benedict Nightingale); Set in an adult literacy class where the student's fear of ignorance is as much of a handicap as their inability to read, Groping for Words is a "close up of the social scrap-heap, written in a fine vein of comic indignation and giving a voice to people whose lives are mainly spent in queues and waiting rooms." (Irving Wardle, The Times); Womberang shows free spirit Rita Onions bringing joy and anarchy to the grim waiting-room of a gynaecology clinic. "A daydream of mastered fear" (New Society)

Adrian Mole is suffering the traumas of first love, parental divorce and spots. He also believes he is an intellectual just waiting to be discovered. In his diary he writes the intimate secrets he can't tell anybody else.

In the not-too-distant future, a radical government has come to power in Great Britain and the Royal family has been moved to a housing estate in Leicester. For the first time, the Royals have to live as ordinary people and they find the experience baffling and frightening, but ultimately enriching. A satire on the failings of the welfare state, the pretensions, expectations and personal foibles of the Royal Family - this warm-hearted and affectionate comedy concerning the Royals' attempts to come to terms with their new situation with moments of gentle irony alternating with pure farce - are just some of the facets of this many-layered and entertaining fantasy.

'It's really, really, really funny' David Walliams Mole Press - a brand new imprint of Penguin Books - is proud to announce the first publication of The Collected Poems of Adrian Mole to mark the author's 50TH birthday.--------------------------- 'Edgy politics, tortured eroticism, misunderstood intellect, changing Britain - a whiff of the sublime. Mole's contribution is significant' Daily Telegraph Featuring poems scattered over nearly thirty years of writing and salvaged from the diaries 'authored' by one Sue Townsend, this slim volume features more than thirty pieces of Adrian's unique art. From his timeless first documented poem - The Tap - via classic odes to his muse, first and only true love Pandora (I adore ya), we follow Adrian's life in verse form. We not only witness his burgeoning political anger in works like Mrs Thatcher (Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?) but also see in later poems his merciless examination of the hollow shell of masculinity as well as documenting his declining libido in tragic pieces like To My Organ. For the first time in a single volume, these are the collected poems of misunderstood intellectual and tortured poet Adrian Mole.'I ruthlessly exploited Adrian. But he can't afford to sue me' Sue Townsend'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times'One of the great comic creations' Daily Mirror'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Discover the brilliant, hilarious and unlikely story of a woman's life rebuilt, from the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series and The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year'There are two things that you should know about me immediately: the first is that I am beautiful, the second is that yesterday I killed a man. Both things were accidents . . .'When Midlands housewife Coventry Dakin kills her next-door neighbour, in a wild attempt to stop him from strangling his wife, she goes on the run.Finding herself alone and friendless in London, she tries to lose herself in the city's maze of streets.There, she meets a bewildering cast of eccentric characters.From Professor Willoughby D'Eresby and his perpetually naked wife Letitia, to Dodo, a care-in the-community inhabitant of Cardboard City, they all contrive to change Coventry in ways she could never have foreseen . . . Praise for Sue Townsend: 'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly