Adrian Mole

***Adrian Mole*** is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared (as Nigel) in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence. The first two books appealed to many readers as a realistic and humorous treatment of the inner life of an adolescent boy. They also captured something of the zeitgeist of the UK during the Thatcher period.

The series has many themes. The first books concentrate on Adrian's desires and ambitions in life (to marry his teenage sweetheart, publish his poetry and novels, obtain financial security) and his complete failure to achieve them. The series satirises human pretensions, and especially, in the first couple of volumes, teenage pretensions.

The second theme is depiction of the social and political situation in Britain, with particular reference to left-wing politics in the 1980s in the first three books. For example, Mr and Mrs Mole's divorce reflects rising divorce rates in the 1980s, and living together unmarried was becoming a norm. Adrian's mother becomes a staunch feminist and briefly joins the Greenham Common campaigners. Pandora, Adrian's love interest, and her parents are part of an intellectualised and left-wing middle class that attempted to embrace the working class.

Humour arises from the outworking of larger social forces within a very ordinary household in a very ordinary part of Middle England.

The last three books (published in the 2000s) move in slightly new directions, showing Adrian as an adult in different environments.

Adrian Albert Mole is born April 2, 1967, and grows up with his parents in the city of Leicester; he moves to Ashby-de-la-Zouch in England's East Midlands. Adrian's family are largely unskilled working class/lower middle class. He is an only child until the age of 15, when his half-brother Brett and half-sister Rosie are born.

The Mole family is dysfunctional. Adrian's parents Pauline and George Mole are working-class characters with limited social mobility who drink and smoke heavily. Both are often unemployed; they have separated, divorced and remarried multiple times, often as a result of extramarital affairs. In a reversal of a typical teenager-mother relationship, Pauline berates Adrian for keeping his room "like a bloody shrine". They move from Leicester to Ashby-de-la-Zouch with their dog (only ever referred to as "the dog", who is eventually replaced by "the new dog"). Adrian's paternal grandmother Edna May Mole is also prominent in the early diaries until her death in The Wilderness Years.

#### Novels

##### ***The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾***

The first book in the Adrian Mole series is written in a diary style, and focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenager who believes himself to be an intellectual. The story is set in 1981 and 1982, and in the background it refers to some of the historic world events of the time, such as the Falklands War and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana as well as the birth of Prince William. Mole is also a fierce critic of prime minister Margaret Thatcher, listing her as one of his worst enemies.

Apart from the humorous events described in the diary, a lot of the book's humour originates from the unreliable narration of Mole, who naïvely, yet confidently, misinterprets events around him.

The book was first published in hardcover by Methuen on October 7, 1982.

A 7-part radio series on BBC Radio 4 featured extracts from the book read by Nicholas Barnes. Townsend adapted the book for the stage in 1984 with music by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley for a 1985 television series.

A successful stage production ran at the Wyndham's Theatre, London, in 1984-1986, that included Simon Gipps-Kent and followed with a road tour.

##### ***The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole***

The second book in the Adrian Mole series focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage aspiring intellectual. The novel is included in the omnibus Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major.

The book is written in a diary style and set in 1982 through to mid-1983. Notable events in this volume are the breakup and later reconciliation of Adrian and Pandora, Adrian's attempt to run away from home and subsequent breakdown, the birth of his sister Rosie Mole, and Adrian's general worry about his O levels and nuclear war.

This book builds on its predecessor by continuing the storyline of Adrian's growing frustration with his body. He constantly writes about the "spots" that mar his complexion, and he also has self-esteem issues about his height and muscular maturity.

The book was first published on August 2, 1984.

##### ***The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend***

The third book in the Adrian Mole series, published on August 31, 1989, focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage (supposed) intellectual. The title is long and often shortened to the more convenient The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole but the three names are part of the full title and represent fictional (or otherwise) actual content of the book.

The book covers the same themes as the first volumes although it differs in style from the other books. There are short collections of Adrian's classic diary entries covering important events over a brief period of a few days (such as Christmas, Adrian leaving home, Adrian's first job etc.) during the mid-1980s, but the continuous regular diary entries from the other books are absent.

There are also several longer transcripts of radio programs on Pirate Radio Four, plus collections of letters and correspondence with characters from the earlier books, including Barry Kent, who is in prison. This format means that it covers a longer time span than any other Adrian Mole book at the expense of some detail.

The book also contains extracts from Sue Townsend's own diaries together with some of her essays, plus a collection of entries from an unknown teenage girl's diary written in the 1930s in Grantham. Townsend suggests that the girl was called Margaret Hilda Roberts and no one knows what became of her, although most readers will spot that this is a strong and bitter satire about Margaret Thatcher (Margaret Hilda Roberts was her maiden name). Townsend originally created this satire in the first few issues of the newspaper Today, as The Secret Diary of Margaret Hilda Roberts Aged 13 3⁄4.

##### ***Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major***

Compilation of the first three books The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole and The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole. The book also contains the specially written bonus, Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians (a reference to newts). It was first published in August 1991.

##### Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years

The fourth book in the Adrian Mole series focuses on the worries of the, now, adult Mole. The book was first published on August 31, 1993 by Methuen. It is set in 1991 to the first part of 1992 and Adrian is 23¾ years of age.

The book covers the same themes as the first volumes and continues the regular format of a diary.

The book charts the progress of Adrian's wavering love life; he begins infatuated, as ever, with Pandora Braithwaite, with whom he is sharing a flat in Oxford (although as her boyfriend Jack Cavendish also lives there, chances of romance are slim). His chasing after Pandora finally ends when she finds Adrian's list of ways of torturing her current partner and recommends a psychotherapist, Leonora de Witt, with whom Adrian is immediately smitten. Leonora fends off all of Adrian's attempts to get to know her better, and indirectly leads him to his next love, Bianca, an engineer from London. His relationship with Bianca is fully enjoyable and looks promising until she runs off with his mother's husband, Martin (also an engineer). However, he soon meets Jo Jo, a worker at Savage's, a horrible Soho restaurant where he found employment.

The last passages of the book are written from Greece, on a cruise which doubles as a writer's course. Adrian is thrilled to learn that "the book without language", a concept he touched upon in his otherwise terrible novel in progress, Lo! The Flat Hills Of My Homeland, caught the attention of Angela Hacker, who has recommended him to an agent.

One recurring feature in the series is that books will tend to have a happy ending that has to be temporary for another book to focus on Adrian's troubles. This book is focused on his low self-esteem, career failures, and loneliness, but with writing success, happy romance and loss of all his worries at the end, it is certainly the happiest ending of any of the books in the series.

##### ***Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years***

The fifth book in the Adrian Mole series was first published on October 14, 1999, and is set from April 30, 1997 (the run up to Pandora's election as MP) until May 2, 1998. Adrian is 30 years of age.

Adrian is the Head Chef in a top Soho restaurant, and currently lives in the upstairs room of the restaurant; the rest of his family live in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. He is estranged from his wife Jo Jo, a Nigerian woman who has returned to her home country following their separation, and they are in the middle of a divorce. The real love of Adrian's life is, as ever, Pandora, who is now standing for Labour MP of Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Pandora's full name is revealed as Pandora Louise Elizabeth Braithwaite in the novel.

Adrian's father has no job, his mother is suspected of being involved with Pandora's father physically, his sister, Rosie, is a victim of culture – piercings, unprotected sex etc. and as a result gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion.

Adrian also has a son with Jo Jo, William, who is three and idolises Jeremy Clarkson. Pandora becomes a Labour MP, and Adrian is offered a job as a TV chef.

Adrian is commissioned to write a book to go with the TV show, but fails, and is facing lifetime debt, but luckily, his mother writes it for him.

Adrian discovers he is father to another son, the disruptive Glenn Bott. Archie Tait, with whom Adrian is acquainted, dies and leaves Adrian his house. Adrian, William and Glenn move in together. Adrian then employs a (mentally unstable) special needs teacher for Glenn, Eleanor Flood, who becomes infatuated with Adrian and ultimately sets fire to the house, after Pandora spends a night there. The house is completely destroyed, leaving him and his sons homeless.

#### Television

The books spawned three TV series.

The first, ***The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾***, was made by Thames Television for the ITV network and broadcast between September 16 and October 21, 1985. The series featured a theme song "Profoundly in Love With Pandora" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads and starred Gian Sammarco as Adrian Mole with Julie Walters playing his mother and Lindsey Stagg as Pandora Braithwaite.

The sequel, ***The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole*** was broadcast between January 5 and February 9, 1987 with Lulu replacing Julie Walters as Adrian's mother.

Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years was broadcast on BBC One in 2001.