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Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

Sue Townsend

Summary

The final chapter in the beloved chronicles of an angsty Brit begun in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ is “a tour de force by a comic genius” (Daily Mail). Am I turning into one of those middle-aged men who think the country has gone to the dogs and that there has been no decent music since Abba? Hard to believe! Adrian Mole is pushing forty, a beleaguered bookseller looking back through the wistful eyes of an unrecognized intellectual and, admittedly, pretty much of an Everyman. But he’s also looking forward, despite a few things: His five-year-old daughter is showing alarming Stalinist traits; his son is fighting the Taliban and he’s worried sick; his unfaithful wife is keeping a diary of her own and it’s all rather heartbreaking; frequent urination has made him fear trouble “down there;” and his mother is penning a misery memoir that is one gross slog of a lie (born an aristocrat in a Norfolk potato field, indeed!). Then one day he receives a phone call out of the blue from the great and only love his life: Pandora Braithwaite. “Do you think of me?” she asks. Only ever since he was 13¾ . . . Adrian Mole’s epic and hilarious chronicle of angst over a quarter century has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and been adapted for television and staged as a musical—truly “a phenomenon” (The Washington Post). This final volume is “like rediscovering an old school friend on Facebook” (Time Out), and “if [it] isn’t the best book published this year, I’ll eat my bookshelf” (Daily Mail).

Available since: 01/02/2018.

Print length: 283 pages.

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About the author

Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend was born in Leicester, England, in 1946. Despite not learning to read until the age of eight, leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications, and having three children by the time...

From the same collection

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole...

Sue Townsend

British adolescent angst has never been so “laugh-out-loud funny” as in this first encounter with a sharp-witted, pining, and achingly honest underdog (The New York Times).  Perhaps when I am famous and my diary is discovered, people will understand the torment of being a 13¾-year-old undiscovered intellectual.   Adrian Mole is approaching fourteen, and like all radical intellectuals he must amass his grievances: His acne vulgaris is grotesque; his crush, Pandora, received seventeen Valentine’s Day cards; his PE teacher is a sadist; he fears his parents’ marriage is over since they no longer smoke together; his dog has gone AWOL; no one appreciates his poetry; and Animal Farm has set him off pork for good. If everyone were as appalled as Adrian Mole, it would be a better world.   Introducing “one of literature’s most endearing figures”: a luckless adolescent of great expectations and dwindling patience who knows all—or believes he does—and tells all (The Observer). First published in 1982, Adrian’s chronicle of angst has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, spawned seven sequels, and been adapted for television and staged as a musical. Here’s where it all began.

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The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

Sue Townsend

“Townsend’s wit is razor sharp” as her self-proclaimed intellectual adolescent hero continues his hilarious angst-filled secret diary (TheMirror).  I can’t wait until I am fully mature and can make urban conversation with intellectuals.   Growing up among inferiors in Great Britain isn’t easy for a sensitive fifteen-year-old “poet of the Midlands” like Adrian Mole, considering everything in the world is conspiring to scar him for life: His hormones are in a maelstrom; his mother is pregnant (at her age!); his girlfriend, Pandora, is in shutdown; radio stardom isn’t panning out; he’s become allergic to non-precious metals; and passing his exams is as dire a crisis as the Falkland Islands.   From weathering a profound but shaky romance with the love of his life to negotiating his parents’ reconciliation to writing his poetry on restroom walls (why on earth did he sign his name?), “Adrian Mole is as engaging as ever” (Time Out). The sequel to the beloved TheSecret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ continues Adrian’s chronicle of angst, which has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and been adapted for television and staged as a musical. Adrian Mole is truly “a phenomenon” (The Washington Post).

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The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole...

Sue Townsend

“The trouble with trying to read passages from the Adrian Mole diaries aloud is that you find yourself laughing so hard you can’t go on” (Kansas City Star).  I wish that I could relate that I have found happiness and contentment . . . but, alas, I cannot—but that is another story . . .   “Probably the most successful comic literary creation of the past two decades” vents his justified rage in these journals once confiscated by authorities—only to be hijacked yet again by a fraudster named Sue Townsend (TheObserver). Though Adrian has finally found the courage to confront her, the literary parasite refuses to put down her Stolichnaya and come to the door.   Now a professional turkey-plucker with his dreams of becoming a serious novelist more elusive than ever, and his teenage passions for Pandora all but faded, Adrian Mole has settled with his new wife in a rural pigsty that’s spitting distance from his appalling mother and her (fourth, is it?) husband. There are two consolations: He has a son who fears gym class (poor little bird legs!), and he’s readying his serial-killer comedy for production. But really, there’s little about the twenty-first century that makes Adrian feel secure.   Adrian Mole’s continuing chronicle of angst has sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and been adapted for television and staged as a musical—truly “a phenomenon” (The Washington Post).

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