Adrian Mole author Sue Townsend dies

Novelist Sue Townsend, best known as the author of the highly-successful Adrian Mole series of books, has died.

Townsend, 68, passed away at home on Thursday after a short illness. She had been left blind after suffering from diabetes for many years.

The first of her comic series, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4, was published in 1982 and the eighth instalment, Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years, was released in 2009.

David Sillito reports.