NEWS

Sue Townsend received the award of Distinguished Honorary Fellow – the highest award the University can make- on 10 July

Following is an address by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess, in honour of Sue Townsend:

This afternoon is a very special occasion in the University of Leicester and in the development of its degree ceremonies as in this ceremony we are to award the title Distinguished Honorary Fellow, a title which was introduced only three years ago to identify very distinguished service to the University. At any one time there will only be 24 recipients of this award and it is the highest award that the University can give. Normally the recipient will already have an honorary degree from the University of Leicester and clearly there will have been an oration given at that time. The individual will have engaged in very distinguished service for the University and to have continued links with it. It is therefore a very great pleasure and a very great privilege to welcome Sue Townsend back to the University of Leicester’s degree ceremonies.

Sue Townsend is a great observer of the social scene. Anyone who turns to her books will find great insights into the human condition delivered with a sharpness of wit which will delight readers who can recognise the situations portrayed.

In the 1980s Sue Townsend shot to fame with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 ¾. It provides a glimpse into the troubled life of a teenage boy who writes about his parents’ marriage, their dog and his girlfriend Pandora. An entry from the diary reads:

‘My father has got the flu. I’m not surprised with the diet we get. My mother went out in the rain to get him a vitamin C drink, but as I told her, ‘It’s too late now’. It’s a miracle we don’t get scurvy. My mother says she can’t see anything on my chin, but this is guilt because of the diet.

The dog has run off because my mother didn’t close the gate. I have broken the arm on the stereo. Nobody knows yet, and with a bit of luck my father will be ill for a long time. He is the only one who uses it apart from me?’

These and other amusing incidents have whet the appetite of many readers who were not disappointed when The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole appeared two years later followed by Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years and Adrian Mole: The Cappucino Years.

But Sue Townsend has produced much more: novels, plays, work for television, the movies and a regular column for Sainsbury’s magazine which has been published as a collection of short essays on everyday topics including hosepipe bans, Aga cookers, tourism, car parks and train journeys.

In writing these accounts she draws on her life and that of her family in Leicester. The City makes appearances in several essays where she wittily describes situations she has observed. She writes:

‘This traffic island is a Leicester landmark. I not only admire it, I am also proud of it. This may make me sound like the ultimate nerd, but I don’t care. There is anger in my bosom because the council transport division wants to replace it with three sets of traffic lights, ‘to increase the traffic flow’. When I first hard about this dastardly plan, the blood traffic flow to my heart almost stopped.

Leicester has traffic lights like centipedes have legs. Visitors rub their eyes in disbelief when faced with the sight of Belgrave Road, which looks like an amber, red and green hell. These lights stretch to the horizon and beyond, possibly to infinity.’

Anyone who has ever visited Leicester will recognise this aspect of our City and will appreciate Sue Townsend as a brilliant writer but she is very conscious of not having been to University, as she writes:

‘I always feel a bit of a fraud before I embark on this teaching stint. I haven’t got an O level or GCSE to my name, and the only time I ever set foot in a university as a young woman was to enter a twist competition. While we’re at it, I may as well confess to failing my 11-plus and also (this is truly humiliating) my cycling proficiency test. I think you’ll agree that these non-qualifications are best kept from nervous writing students. I have been working as a professional writer for eighteen years, but I am still expecting a fax saying:

To: Sue Townsend From: The Society for the Exposure of Unworthy Writers You have been found out. You must leave the writing profession immediately.’

But this will never happen. Sue Townsend has a firm place in our University where she has deposited her literary and private papers in our Library for all to use.

Mr Chancellor, it is a great pleasure to present to you Sue Townsend that you may bestow upon her the award of Distinguished Honorary Fellow.

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