When one leads a rich and full fantasy life, it is inevitable that you imagine yourself in all sorts of dire situations. Or rather you imagine you, the character, in those dire situations. You wonder what would happen if you suddenly became very ill, getting lost in the grand detail, the feeling, the scent of antiseptic.
We can imagine just about anything, have imagined just abouto anything — except blindness. That, to us, is the no-go zone. We cannot imagine life without reading. We cannot imagine life without writing, yet we don’t seem to panic over the loss of our fingers in the same way. Perhaps, it’s because, as the mother says, we were born talking and haven’t shut up since.
Reading about Sue Townsend’s growing blindness makes us think about that fear. And, at the same time, makes us want to march into her house and tell her all about the cool technology that can help her. Yes, of course she’s eager for our advice. Who isn’t?
We don’t believe she’ll stop writing. She may re-evaluate her work and approach, but we have formed a theory on what we do: the words must be released from the brain much in the way pressure must be released from a volcano. You need the space for more words.
- Sue Townsend: Reasons to be cheerful – Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole novels have been bestsellers for nearly 20 years. She tells Robert Hanks why her latest – the sixth in the series – may be her last
