ABOUT SUE TOWNSEND
Humorist who created the character Adrian Mole and in 1992 wrote The Queen and I, which became a popular London West End play.
She began writing in secret at age 14 and did not find success until the 1980s.
She wrote the half-hour drama Womberang, which took place in a gynecology waiting room, in 1979.
Her oldest son asked her why their family didn't go to safari parks, a question that inspired the Adrian Mole books.
She lived near playwright Joe Orton while writing her initial Adrian Mole novel.
