Sue Townsend's six best books

Sue Townsend is the creator of Britain's best loved and bestselling diarist, Adrian Mole. The first book in the series is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 ¾ (1982), followed by its sequel, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984). Together these books made Townsend the bestselling author of the 1980s. There have been six further books in the Adrian Mole series, which have sold over eight million copies and have been adapted for radio, television and theatre.

One of Townsend's six best books, as told to the Daily Express:

RABBIT, RUN
by John Updike

Updike is a wonderful stylist and much of his prose is poetic. He has the talent to write about everyday people, those quietly desperate and this is no exception.

Read about the other books on the list.

Rabbit, Run figures among Julian Barnes' best books to travel with, William Sutcliffe's top 10 relationship novels, and Aifric Campbell's top ten list of favorite jobs in fiction.

--Marshal Zeringue