Each of these, which taken together form a satiric bildungsroman, were best-sellers, with the first novel spending more than a year in the number-one spot. Townsend's other work includes the novels
Rebuilding Coventry: A Tale of Two Cities (1988),
The Queen and I (1992), and
Ghost Children (1997), in addition to plays produced in Leicester, Manchester, and London, among other areas of the United Kingdom. The chord that resonates most clearly throughout Townsend's work is the intersection of politics and family--particularly working-and middle-class families.
Townsend writes of such family situations with an authenticity grounded in experience. The eldest of three daughters, Susan Lilian Johnstone was born to John and Grace Johnstone on 2 April 1946 (her nebbish creation, Adrian, shares her birthday). She commented in the 28 November 1984 edition of The Times (London) that her parents, both of whom worked as bus conductors, were "clever enough to have been anything under different circumstances." Although unable to provide material wealth to Townsend's childhood--the family lived on an estate of prefabricated houses in Leicester known as "the rabbit hutches"--the Johnstones amply fed her intellect, especially in their own devotion to reading. Townsend has repeatedly commented that her family's regular use of public libraries led to her self-proclaimed addiction to print.
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