Author. Born Susan Lillian Johnstone into a working-class family, she was the oldest of five sisters. At the age of eight she contracted mumps, forcing her to stay home from school. During this time, her mother purchased her some 'Just William' story books, which were a great influence for her later writing career. After failing her compulsory 11-plus exam, she attended South Wigston High School, later saying in an interview that at this time she and her friends witnessed a murder in nearby woods, the culprit being murderer Colin Pitchfork. She left school at the age of 15, and at the age of 18 married her first husband, sheet-metal worker Keith Townsend, with whom she had three children. Her marriage failed and she was a single mother by the age of 23, facing many years of hardship. After 20 years of clandestine writing, her work came to the fore in 1978 after her new partner suggested she join a writing group at Leicester's Phoenix Arts Centre. Here she composed the drama 'Womberang', winning her a Thames TV bursary. It was during this time that her most well-known character, schoolboy Adrian Mole, was created. Appearing at first as two short stories in a magazine. Encouraged to send a script to BBC Radio, it was here where the titular character first came to national awareness on January 1st 1982, in a single play broadcast as 'The Diary of Nigel Mole, Aged 13 & 3/4', Nigel being the characters original name. From this came the first of nine novels featuring Adrian Mole, selling one million copies in it's first year. The series went on to sell more copies than any other work of fiction in Britain during the 1980s. Three Adrian Mole television series followed and were broadcast between 1985 and 2001. Her new found fame and fortune allowed her to live a more comfortable life and move into a Victorian vicarage, finally escaping the poverty she endured for so many years. She suffered her first major health problem in her 30s after having a heart attack; the first sign of the diabetes that would afflict the rest of her life. She continued to write however, penning six more novels including 'The Queen and I' (1992). Her final book, 'The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year', was published in 2012. She became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1993, followed by various honorary doctorates, then in 2009 awarded with the title of Honorary Freedom of Leicester. Due to her ongoing diabetes, she was registered blind in 2001, and suffered kidney failure in 2009. Degenerative arthritis left her wheelchair bound, but she continued her writing by dictating her work to her son Sean. She died at her home after suffering a stroke, aged 68 years. Her Humanist funeral took place at Leicester's De Montfort Hall, with many of her colleagues from the literary world paying tribute.