(Amazon UK link) I suppose it was more than thirty years ago that I picked up and read Sue Townsend’s first (and best-known) book, the 'diary of Adrian Mole'. I recall being unimpressed, finding it somewhat sordid and dull rather than amusing. I read a couple of her other books shortly afterwards, and didn’t much like them either. 
So I’m not entirely sure why I decided to pick up her novel ‘Number ten’ at a church bookstall seven years ago. There are newspaper quotations on the front, saying that...