The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001

Sue Townsend

Published by Penguin/Michael Joseph, November 2008

A book review by Yusuf Martin

Admittedly the last of the Adrian Mole series I had in my sticky little fingers was Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (1999), having missed out on Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004).

In the move to Malaysia I, somehow, became de-Moled and lost all contact with the multifaceted Adrian Mole. This is, in some way, fortuitous as The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001, chronologically, breech that gap, and I can now happily purchase Townsend’s WoMD and not lose out on the story thread.

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001 follow on neatly, and chronologically, from Sue Townsends highly successful Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years, which has been, subsequently, aired as a popular TV series (in 2001). In the latest book the hapless Adrian is now 33, that is twenty years on from the very first book in the ‘Mole’ series - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾.

In the most recent hardback we find ourselves back in the strange offbeat world of Adrian Mole, his on-going antipathy towards his divorced and be-partnered parents, his struggles with growing children, their schools and multiple idiosyncrasies and the increasingly widening gap between Adrian’s ambitions and the stark reality of his life.

Adrian Arthur Mole is a not so proud father of two – Glen and William, and proud author of two cookery books – Offaly Good and Offaly Good Again. He is a wannabe writer/playwright. He no longer has a TV cookery show and is desperately trying to reside amidst some of the very worse housing estate inhabitants it might be possible to imagine.

Pursued by his ex-girlfriend (mother of Glen), Adrian attempts to hold his head up while engaging in an on/off relationship with his housing officer, one Pamela Pigg and the difficulties this brings into his far from uneventful life.

Meanwhile, for some years, Adrian has been secretly in love with Pandora, who has, since the previous book, been elevated from being a mere Member of Parliament to a Minister in the British Government, but, as ever, the relationship is fraught with all types of difficulties, so Adrian must content himself with living the life of a, not too comfortable, single father.

Adrian’s benignly soft heart, indelible parental responsibility and, at times, acutely burning ambitions lead him into a cornucopia of mixed blessings throughout the book - from the rescuing of a lonely, 95 year old pensioner from the sadness of a life alone, to the constant struggle between Adrian’s rampant creative spirit and his ever present need to earn a living to keep the eternal wolf from the door.

Adrian’s, ever present, dreams of his bizarre serial-killer comedy The White Van being picked up by the BBC remain as elusive as ever, meanwhile Adrian has some minor success with his epic poem The Restless Tadpole, while also engaged upon writing his new pig novel called, appropriately – Sty.

While purporting to be about Adrian, and the vagaries of his life, Sue Townsend injects much social and political satire into these works. The latest volume is no exception, with digs at the, then, British Prime Minister, other cabinet members, as well as the rich and wannabe famous.

I’ll not spoil the ending, so if you want to see how this is all resolved you will have to purchase the novel and see for yourself.

I confess to several (LOL) laugh-out-loud moments, and one almost (ROTFL) rolling-on-the-floor-laughing, it was my wife’s quizzical look which prevented the later. I smiled and just said – it’s this book, she nodded, sagely, bemused.

Gags come aplenty in this hilarious book which follows a grand traditional of English comic novels from G.K.Chesterton, to P.G.Wodehouse, Tom Sharpe and many, many, more. From the irony of being pulled over by the police for sharing a chocolate bar whist driving, to the potential faux pas involved in meeting Ms Pigg’s parents (Porky and Snouty)for the first time, the reader is pushed through the door marked hilarity, bludgeoned by wit/repartee and ejected into Adrian Mole’s practically surreal existence.

This present volume of the exploits of Adrian Mole is in fact the accumulation of the Diary of a Provincial Man, Sue Townsend wrote for the UK newspaper The Guardian in the years 1999 to 2001, hence the title The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001.

While her character, Adrian Mole, has become a well loved humorous social commentator, Sue Townsend, his creator, represents an endearing and resounding success story for our times.

Sue Townsend, born in 1946, is a constant reminder that you don’t have to have come from a ‘good’ family, or to have been to university to become a much loved, successful, intelligent writer of some of the best comic fiction published in the last three decades.

Born into the British working classes, Sue Townsend once lived in one of the poorer sections of Leister, England, failed her 11+ exam and went to a humble secondary modern school. As if that wasn’t enough, at the early age of eighteen she married to a sheet-metal-worker, had three children, later divorced, re-married and had another child with the man who was to promote her writing.

She worked in many menial jobs and secretly wrote, hiding the work from her first husband. In her second marriage her husband, a canoe-maker, encouraged her writing and eventually, for which we are all eternally grateful, she, and Adrian Mole were published.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, her first novel was based upon her experiences at school. It became a best seller in the 1980s, as did her subsequent novels. Together the volume of her work has been translated into at least thirty-four languages, perhaps more as I write - the Adrian Mole diaries alone have sold over eight million copies worldwide.

Sue Townsend is an honorary doctor of Letters from Loughborough University, and holds an honorary doctorate from Leister University. In 2001 she was registered legally blind, due to diabetes.

It is mentioned that Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004) might be the final volume to the life and stories of Adrian Mole esquire.