The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

by SueTownsend (Author), SueTownsend (Author)

Synopsis

The day her gifted twins leave home for university, 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. Perhaps she will be able to think. Her husband Dr Brian Beaver, an astronomer who divides his time between gazing at the expanding universe, an unsatisfactory eight-years-old affair with his colleague Titania and mooching in his shed, is not happy. Who will cook dinner? Eva, he complains, is either having a breakdown or taking attention - seeking to new heights. But word of Eva's refusal to get out of bed quickly spreads. Alexander the dreadlocked white-van man arrives to help Eva dispose of all her clothes and possessions and bring her tea and toast. Legions of fans are writing to her or gathering in the street to catch a glimpse of this 'angel'. Her mother Ruby is unsympathetic: 'She'd soon get out of bed if her arse was on fire. 'And, though the world keeps intruding, it is from the confines of her bed that Eva at last begins to understand freedom. "The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year" is a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be. Sue Townsend, Britain's funniest writer for over three decades, has written a brilliant novel that eviscerates modern family life. Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, "The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55 )", "Number Ten", "Ghost Children", "The Queen and I" and "Queen Camilla", all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She has also written numerous well-received plays. She lives in Leicester, where she was born and grew up.

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Quantity

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Published: 01 Mar 2012

ISBN 10: 071815715X
ISBN 13: 9780718157159
Prizes: Shortlisted for Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2012.

Media 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 *
Proof, once more, that Townsend is one of the funniest writers around * The Times *
Townsend's wit is razor-sharp * Daily Mirror *
Author Bio
Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946. Despite not learning to read until the age of eight, leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications and having three children by the time she was in her mid-twenties, she always found time to read widely. She also wrote secretly for twenty years. After joining a writers' group at The Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, she won a Thames Television award for her first play, Womberang, and became a professional playwright and novelist. After the publication of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 133/4, Sue continued to make the nation laugh and prick its conscience. She wrote seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries and five other popular novels - including The Queen and I, Number Ten and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - and numerous well received plays. Sue passed away in 2014 at the age of sixty-eight. She remains widely regarded as Britain's favourite comic writer.