Sue Townsend , author of the bestselling Adrian Mole books , left £1,106,163 in her will . The novelist , who died aged 68 in April last year , achieved huge success with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole , Aged 133⁄4 , when it was published in 1982 . The book , which told of the life and loves of an angst-ridden teenager , was followed by seven sequels , selling in total more than eight million copies . Died last year : Sue Townsend , author of the bestselling Adrian Mole books , left £1,106,163 in her will . Probate records released last week reveal that Ms Townsend left the bulk of her estate in trust , with her second husband Colin Broadway and her four children named as beneficiaries . She also left £10,000 to Freedom From Torture , legacies of £10,000 each to her two sisters , and £1,000 each to 14 cousins , nieces , nephews , aunts and an uncle . Born in Leicester in 1946 , Townsend left school at the age of 15 , married at 18 , and by 23 was a single parent with three children , a biography from her publisher , Penguin , said . After writing in secret for 20 years while working as a factory worker , shop assistant and youth worker , she eventually joined a writers ' group at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester when she was in her 30s . At 35 she won the Thames Playwright Award for her play , Womberang , and a year later published the first in her series about Adrian Mole , which she had begun writing in 1975 while living on a Leicester housing estate . The book , which told of the life and loves of an angst-ridden teenager , was followed by seven sequels , selling in total more than eight million copies .
Novelist , who died last week , had huge success with Adrian Mole books . The eight-book series sold more than eight million copies worldwide . She left the bulk of her estate to her second husband Colin Broadway .