If, like me, you came across Louise Rennison’s Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series through your teenage children, you’ll readily confess to your helpless absorption in the hilarious, infectious and simply compelling nature of the stories. You just have to keep reading them, if only to see what preposterous predicament Georgia will find herself (or place herself) in next.

It is, of course, not just the comically (and movingly) fraught scenarios, the ups and owns of adolescent romances, but Georgia’s unique thought processes that beguile and uplift you. Based on the author at the age of 14, Georgia is not an angel – she is prone to be self-obsessed, even a little stupid on occasions – but is fundamentally a good-hearted youngster who tries to make the right decisions.

Another of those rare authors who seem to write for teenagers but who are eagerly read by adults, too, Louise Rennison combines a light-hearted wisdom about adolescent turmoil with a simply fabulous sense of humour. These books make you laugh out loud and have you holding your breath in anticipation about how the next awkward dilemma will be survived.

Louise Rennison graduated from Brighton University and by the 1980s was touring the comedy circuit in the UK with her show Stevie Wonder Touched My Face. The show revealed Louise’s shining comedic talent. The first and second novels in the nine-book (and counting) Confessions series, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and It’s OK, I’m Wearing Really Big Trousers was made into a successful comedy movie (Angus Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging) in 2008.