Editing Sue Townsend (section)

==Success of Adrian Mole==
The first two published stories appeared in a short-lived arts' journal entitled ''magazine,'' in the editing and production of which Townsend was involved, featuring the character then still called Nigel Mole. Actor [[Nigel Bennett]] had given her help and encouragement to persist with the work and sent the script to [[John Tydeman]], the deputy head of BBC Radio Drama.<ref name="Webber"/> The character first came to national awareness in a single radio play, ''The Diary of Nigel Mole, Aged 13¾'', broadcast by [[BBC Radio 4]] on New Year's Day 1982.<ref name="BBC110415">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26986127 "Obituary: Sue Townsend"], BBC News, 11 April 2014</ref>

Someone at the publishers [[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]] heard the broadcast and commissioned Townsend to write the first book, ''The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾'' which came out in September 1982<ref name="Hendy">David Hendy ''Life on Air: A History of Radio Four'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, p.373</ref> The publisher insisted on the change of name because of the similarity to [[Nigel Molesworth]], the schoolboy character created by [[Ronald Searle]] and [[Geoffrey Willans]].<ref name="Kellaway14"/> A month after the book's appearance it had topped the best seller list and had sold a million copies after a year.<ref name="Telegraphobit"/> Adapted as a play, the stage version premiered in Leicester and ran at [[Wyndham's Theatre]] for more than two years.<ref name="Billington">Michael Billington [https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/apr/11/sue-townsend-plays-adrian-mole-theatre "'Plays poured out of her'"], ''The Guardian'', 11 April 2014</ref> The first two books were seen by many as a realistic and humorous treatment of the inner life of an adolescent boy. They also captured something of the [[zeitgeist]] of Britain during the [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] era.<ref>{{cite news|last=Lawless|first=Jill|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/sue-townsend-creator-adrian-mole-dies-68-23286238|title=Sue Townsend, Creator of Adrian Mole, Dies at 68|publisher=ABC News | agency=Associated Press|date=11 April 2014|access-date=12 April 2014}}</ref>

''The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole'' (1984) was reputedly based on her children's experiences at [[Mary Linwood Comprehensive School]] in Leicester. Several of the teachers who appear in the book (such as Ms Fossington-Gore and Mr Dock) are based on staff who worked at the school in the early 1980s. When the book was televised, it was mostly filmed at a different school nearby. Mary Linwood Comprehensive was closed in 1997.

These first two books were adapted into [[The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (TV series)|a television series]], broadcast in 1985 and 1987, and a video game.