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" The DSS offices are not given enough funding, their staff are poorly paid and are driven to distraction by the amount of work they have to do. There is frequent turnover of staff. Morale is extremely low. Working with desperate people all day is very dispiriting; their unhappiness rubs off on you. "

Sue Townsend

Working

People

Work

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" The monarchy is finished. It was finished a while ago, but they're still making the corpses dance. "

" Lack of confidence - every time I start a new piece of work, it seems I have to spend a long while under the duvet thinking I can't do it. "

" People down on their luck deserve the best: beautiful surroundings and well-paid professional staff to help them out of their difficulties. Why not train thousands more social workers and let them sit in on claimants' interviews? "

" Most social problems could be helped or prevented if people had more money and practical advice. "

" We had library books in our house, but not our own. So you had 14 days to read them. There would be eight books a fortnight in our house and I'd read as many of those as I could. "

" I always wanted to be Jo in 'Little Women.' She's a bit reckless and feckless, always getting into trouble like me. But I'm probably more like Madame Bovary. "

" I took my sight and mobility for granted. "

" In the early days, it was, you know, I used to weep while I was writing. I used to grab at any kind of anything, any hint, any tip of how to make it easy. "

" I became an insomniac, really, hardly slept at all, didn't even try to. And it's carried on. I hate to say I only need as much sleep as Mrs. Thatcher, but I can cope really well on five hours. "

" I take life very seriously. I can laugh at it, because what else can you do? But it's a hard daily battle. "

" 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. "

" I prefer to keep my secrets to myself, to the grave... and beyond! "

" Yes, I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure'. It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador. "

Sue Townsend

People

Feel

" I am surrounded by counselors. My sister is a counselor. My daughter is training to be a counselor. A lot of my friends are counselors. "

" Live with all of your senses. "

" I seem to be able to get depressed quite easily without any reason. "

" My cream and black Aga. It is the heart of the house, and people congregate around it. "

" I've always been fascinated by totalitarian regimes. I'm not an admirer of them. "

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

" I never imagined when I began writing in the early 1960s I'd become professional and my life would be transformed. "

" I must have been a very strange child. I was very pretentious. Like Adrian Mole. "

Sue Townsend

Been

Strange

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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

Teacher

Used

" I don't like to be noticed. The older I've got, the more reclusive I've become. I've got late-onset shyness. People are lovely. When they see me in the street, they don't ask for anything from me. They just say: 'I thought it was you, and I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your books,' but I can't seem to cope with it anymore. "

" I'm getting to the end of my magnifying glasses now. One eye's gone completely. The other is gradually dimming. Dimming - that sounds very dramatic, doesn't it? I'm so lucky. I can still make a living - and the same kind of living. "

" I hate it when people call me a 'national treasure.' It takes away your bite and makes you feel like a harmless old golden Labrador. "

" When I was a child, I dreaded blindness. We used to ask: 'Would we rather be blind or deaf?' I said I'd rather be blind, even though I was scared of it. I couldn't bear not being able to hear music or talk to people. "

" 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. "

" I always feel as if I'm a disappointment: that people want a grand dame in furs like Barbara Taylor Bradford. "

Sue Townsend

Want

Disappointment