The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

Summary

'Hilarious and totally Townsend. There were parts where I laughed until I cried' Daily Mail

What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year?


Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be.

The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance.

Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads.

Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street. While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . .

Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades.

'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times

'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent

'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly

'A funny, poignant look at modern family life' Daily Express

Reviews

  • What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year?

    Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be.
    from publisher's description

About the author

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend was, and remains, Britain's favourite comic novelist.

For over thirty years, after the publication of her instant and iconic bestseller The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ in 1982, she made us weep with laughter and pricked the nation's conscience. Seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries followed, and all were highly acclaimed bestsellers.

She also published five other hugely popular novels - including The Queen and I and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - as well as writing numerous well-received plays. Remarkably, Sue did not learn to read until she was eight and left school with no qualifications. As beloved by critics as she was by readers the length and breadth of the nation, she chronicled the lives of ordinary people in Britain through times of upheaval and great social change.

She lived in Leicester all her Life, dying in the city that she loved in 2014.
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