Sue Townsend, Leicester Treasure, RIP

As a photographer I've snapped a good number of VIPs, particularly Leicester-based VIPs. Sue Townsend was one of my favourites. Over the years I took her picture many times.

Sue Townsend, centre front, with snooker pro,
Mark Selby, Joe Orton's sister, Marilyn, & Englebert.
Leicester Walk of Fame, 2010. Pic by Liz Hewitt.

She was frank, funny and kind. She loved to laugh and to have a good time. She put everyone around her at ease and wasn't the least bit starry or special, although after the success of 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4', the best-selling book of the 1980s, let alone all her other books, plays and the rest, she had every right to be. She was one of the nicest of Leicester's home-grown personalities and it's sad to know I'll never snap her again.

Diabetes, blindness, arthritis, a kidney transplant and a stroke all took their toll and Sue died at her home in Leicester yesterday, 10 April, aged just 68. The past several times I saw her she was having mobility problems and in a wheelchair, but still upbeat, still funny and always ready with a joke.

Just as there was something of the everyman in Adrian Mole, there was something of everyones friend in Sue Townsend; one of Britain's funniest women and as well as Adrian Mole, the author of the hugely funny, 'The Queen and I'. With her socialist and republican leanings coupled with a strong sense of social justice, in 'The Queen and I' Sue told the story only she could have told, of the Royal Family being sent to live on a council estate. If you haven't read it, I urge you to do so :)

Sue Townsend, multi-award winning novelist, playwright, screenwriter, all-round funny lady, Leicester and national treasure, RIP.

Leicester City FC - Back in the Premier League!

I've had no option but to get to like football since the early days of taking photographs for the Leicester Mercury. Hours spent in the Filbert Street Stadium either results in total boredom or some degree of interest in the game.

So what cool news this weekend when everything fell just right and local heroes Leicester City FC found themselves back in the Premier League after a decade in the First Division. (Full story here.) CONGRATULATIONS THE FOXES & FOXES FANS!!

Leicester City Football Club - back in the Premier League after a decade!