Janet Fillingham met Sue Townsend in 1980 while a junior agent at Sheil Land Associates. Townsend, then 34, was a new playwright, beginning to dabble in prose. Fillingham became Townsend's first agent, representing the Leicester-born writer for 11 years. After a career that incorporated 15 novels and many plays, Townsend died on Thursday, aged 68.
Sue Townsend, soft-voiced and diffident, was first nurtured as a writer by the Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester still going strong, still delivering cultural and creative opportunities to its local community nearly 40 years after Sue tentatively pushed open their door. Her play Womberang, developed in Leicester, had a short run in 1979 at Verity Bargate's original Soho Poly theatre. Audience instructions on entry to that powerhouse of creativity: "Breathe in, we'll squeeze you in somehow."
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