The Woman Who Went To Bed For A Year by Sue Townsend (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

SUE Townsend, who died last year, was regarded as one of Britain's best comic writers. She was best known for her Adrian Mole books, chronicling the diaries of a schoolboy through to his mature years.

This was her last novel and in it, Townsend explores an emotion many of us may have experienced at some time or other – 'sod it, I'm fed up with all this, I'm going to stay in bed.'