Author Sue Townsend, famous for her Adrian Mole series of book, passed away on Thursday at the age of 68.

Townsend died after a short illness, reports BBC News, but had been in poor health for a few years. She had been diabetic for almost 30 years, which eventually left her blind. In 2009, she had a kidney transplant and suffered a stroke in late 2012.

A friend of the family said in a statement: "She was with her family. She'd been very ill recently - she'd suffered a stroke - and succumbed to that illness."

She is best known for her character Adrian Mole, who lives in the UK while Margaret Thatcher was in power and the series progressed until Tony Blair is prime minister and Mole is very much an older man.

The series first started in 1982 with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4 and spanned eight books. Townsend published the eighth, Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years in 2009. There was to be a ninth novel, which had to be put on hold after her stroke.

According to The Independent, her Adrian Mole series was translated into almost 30 different languages and its popularity resulted in it being adapted for television and the stage.

Actor Stephen Mangan, who played the title character in a BBC series in 2001 said, "Greatly upset to hear that Sue Townsend has died. One of the warmest, funniest and wisest people I ever met."

The Adrian Mole series wasn't all she wrote, as her book The Queen And I also was a best-seller.