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Sue Townsend
Author
The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated The Queen and I in Books
Oct 6, 2020
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year
7.0
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What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year? Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of...
Adrian Mole: the Collected Poems
Book
Mole Press - a brand new imprint of Penguin Books - is proud to announce the first publication of...
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4
7.3
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Re-issued with the charming original artwork from 1982, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4...
The Queen and I
5.8
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The Queen and I is the brilliantly funny novel by Sue Townsend, author of the Adrian Mole series. ...
Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Camilia
6.0
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From the back cover: 'What if being royal was a crime? The UK has come over all republican....
Fiction Royal Family Sue Townsend Political Humour
Li Hughes (285 KP) rated Retribution (C.J. Townsend #1) in Books
Aug 6, 2017
Cons: The plot is a mess of serial killer, legal eagle, Cuban, and rape case cliches. The rapist is a mysogonistic caricature who has so little control over himself that any personal setback should have landed him in jail years ago. ASA Townsend is strong and well-respected to the point of Mary Sue status, yet falling apart inside and seems to be discovering that having sex with the right man can help heal her trauma. (Blech.) No rape or murder is ever 'run of the mill', but these are Hannibal Lecter-esque in their brutality. There are multiple Hispanic/Latin characters and they are cocky, rude, gross, and have hilariously terrible fashion sense: none are likable. And there is a 'twist ending' out of nowhere just when you think the case is wrapped up.
In conclusion: If you're stuck without anything else to read, this isn't horrific. But I personally wouldn't recommend searching it out.
Invisible Women: It's Time to Talk About You!
Book
Isn't it about time we talked about YOU? Tessa, Sandra and Harriet have been best friends through...
Kaz (232 KP) rated Queen Camilia in Books
Jul 15, 2019 (Updated Jul 15, 2019)
This novel is based on what would happen if the institution of the Royal Family was in exile and were living on a council estate. Britain is divided into many different zones, depending on your social standing and no one can cross zones without an I.D card. Also the police know your every move, thanks to cameras which are installed everywhere and they can access all information about the residents, using the Vulcan computer system.
Firstly, I liked how Sue Townsend characterized the members of the Royal family, they are all very likable characters, funny characters. I also liked that we got the perspectives of the royal pets too, on what was going on.
However, I found a few things wrong with this book. I personally like the British Royal Family, but, even though this book is funny, I could tell that the author wasn't entirely in favour of them and so I felt that at times, the jokes were a bit cutting and were laughing at the Royal Family, rather than laughing with them.
Secondly, at the beginning of the book, I felt like this was making some interesting observation on modern British life. However, as the book progressed, what could have been a humorous insight into these issues, turned into a bit of a mess.
Thirdly, the construction of the plot was very sloppy. The plot didn't seem to focus on one specific thing. What was a book about the Royal Family and the illegitimate son of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles , randomly turned into a farce about the dogs in the area. The comedy with the dogs at the beginning was funny, as I said before,, but it escalated into farce.
Also, plot line involving a police officer having a crush on one of the lower class women in 'Slapper Valley', one of the exclusion zones, never got an resolution at all..
Finally, the ending for me, was very poor. It ended quite abruptly and was quite frankly, bizarre and unsatisfying.
I started out really enjoying this book, but in the end, it turned into a bit of a mess. This was occasionally funny, but overall, a very disappointing read.