The woman who went to bed for a year - Sue Townsend

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-year-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.