"I have realised I have never seen a dead body or a real female nipple," wrote Adrian Mole in one of his famous diaries. "This is what comes of living in a cul de sac."

Sue Townsend, creator of Adrian Mole, who perfectly caught the voice first of an anguished adolescent, and then of a conflicted man ageing during the past decades, has died at the age of 68.

She had a wonderfully dry sense of humour. The humility, insight and compassion for the human condition that radiated from all her work will be missed by her millions of readers, not least the many fans of her writings in The Observer.

Townsend was a rare voice for more than her sense of comedy. She knew what it was like to be a mother, diminished by poverty, fighting for survival.

She never saw a world of shirkers, only citizens striving to retain their dignity and sense of self, and their ability to laugh, in spite of a deeply unfair and uncaring system.

Adrian Mole was profoundly, hilariously self-important. Sue Townsend was anything but. She will be hugely missed.