Sue Townsend's 6 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:

MADAME BOVARY
by Gustave Flaubert

This is beautifully written and full of captivating characters. Emma, the heroine, is a foolish woman yet you’re always rooting for her such is the strength of Flaubert’s characterisation.

The book is so descriptive, I’d read it two or three times a year when I could see. [Townsend is now registered blind.]

Read about another novel on the list.

Madame Bovary is on Helena Frith Powell's list of ten of the best sexy French books, the Christian Science Monitor's list of six novels about grand passions, John Mullan's lists of ten landmark coach rides in literature, ten of the best cathedrals in literature, ten of the best balls in literature, ten of the best bad lawyers in literature, ten of the best lotharios in literature, and ten of the best bad doctors in fiction, Valerie Martin's list of six novels about doomed marriages, and Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers. It tops Peter Carey's list of the top ten works of literature and was second on a top ten works of literature list selected by leading writers from Britain, America and Australia in 2007. It is one of John Bowe's six favorite books on love.

--Marshal Zeringue