I think we take it for granted that if you are with your husband after 30 years, then he is the love of your life.

- Sue Townsend

Being poor with three small children is terrifying. You can't make any plans. You know you're not going on holiday, ever. There's no way you could ever afford driving lessons or a car. And the guilt I used to feel: they had holes in their shoes, and at one point, I had to send them to school wearing Wellingtons when the sun was shining.

- Sue Townsend

Yes - I am usually overweight. I have had to be interested in diet because of being diabetic for 30 years and having kidney failure.

- Sue Townsend

I have a slight addiction to Diet Coke, and, of course, I absolutely shouldn't touch it because it makes the kidneys work really hard.

- Sue Townsend

I do think that books, good books, free you. They make you feel a citizen of the world and things like class, sex and age don't matter. They're the greatest leveler.

- Sue Townsend

Yes - I am usually overweight. I have had to be interested in diet because of being diabetic for 30 years and having kidney failure.

- Sue Townsend

In the playground, I always made people laugh; I used to charge them three pence for an impression of a teacher. It kept me in toffees.

- Sue Townsend

I am a very independent person, and I, you know, I maintain that independence, but, you know, certain things - I mean, it takes, you know, it's just much easier for other people if other people can help you every now and again.

- Sue Townsend

I married two weeks after my 18th birthday, far too young, and by the time I was 23 I was a single mother of three small children, Sean, Daniel and Victoria, living in a prefab house.

- Sue Townsend