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Adrian Mole #7
The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001.
'Told with Townsend's trademark deadpan humour. To people of a certain age, Adrian Mole was their Harry Potter' News of the World Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the SIXTH BOOK in his diaries where Adrian, Leicester's most unlikely ex-con, faces the nit-infested reality of being a single parent. --------------------------- Monday January 3, 2000 So how do I greet the New Millennium? In despair. I'm a single parent, I live with my mother . . . I have a bald spot the size of a jaffa cake on the back of my head . . . I can't go on like this, drifting into early middle-age. I need a Life Plan . . . The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian Mole has become a a single-father bringing up two young boys in an uncaring world. With the ever-unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother Brett sponging off him; and literary success ever-elusive, Adrian tries to make ends meet and find a purpose. But little does he realise that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror . . . 'An achingly funny anti-hero' Daily Mail 'One of the great comic creations of our time. Almost every page of his diaries bring a smile to the face' Scotsman 'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran
283 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
91 people are currently reading
1623 people want to read
About the author
Sue Townsend
114 books943 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Susan Lillian "Sue" Townsend was a British novelist, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole series of books. Her writing tended to combine comedy with social commentary, though she has written purely dramatic works as well. She suffered from diabetes for many years, as a result of which she was registered blind in 2001, and had woven this theme into her work.
Susan Lillian "Sue" Townsend was a British novelist, best known as the author of the Adrian Mole series of books. Her writing tended to combine comedy with social commentary, though she has written purely dramatic works as well. She suffered from diabetes for many years, as a result of which she was registered blind in 2001, and had woven this theme into her work.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
July 22, 2009
This book's origins as a series of newspaper columns are all too evident when you read it - not only do plot lines commence abruptly and disappear quickly, but it's obviously written for a very casual reader. I found it quite irritating as a longterm Mole fan, because the vast majority of the plotlines were recycled from previous books, and there were quite a few continuity errors with other books in the canon. Normally I'd say one for die-hard fans only, but I suspect they'd actually be the ones who'd find most to fault in this. However, it's worth reading purely for the extremely surreal part chronicling the period when Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years is on TV and explaining how Sue Townsend is a bitter, failed writer passing Adrian's diaries off as her own work. Especially the poem about earwig poo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2009
I did it again. I walked smack into the middle of a series. And I have only myself to blame. Had I been more careful in examining this book, I would have noticed it's part of a series—I would also have noted its epistolary format, another feature that ordinarily gives me pause. However, I did not notice these things, and even once I did, I read this book anyway. Now I have to write this review—me, a neophyte to the Adrian Mole saga, a doubter of epistolary works! This can only end in tears.
Adrian Mole, at this point in his life, is the single father of two boys (by different mothers), living in housing, and struggling to make a career for himself as a writer. We're supposed to identify with Adrian on some level, I guess, and find humour in his insane experiences with crazy relatives, random elderly people, and the head of comedy at the BBC. So you'll have to forgive me, fans of Adrian Mole, when I say that I think Adrian is an idiot.
I don't really want to identify with someone as deluded and irresponsible as Adrian. Sure, the people in his life use him quite a bit and seldom show him much respect. I sympathize. I don't empathize, however, because on top of all those hardships, Adrian creates more in a ceaseless fashion that is a neurosis all to itself. He's paranoid, obsessive, and bland. There's very little to like about Adrian. Usually, when faced with a main character like this, I take it as a sign that the story is one of gradual redemption as the character shoulders responsibility after responsibility. I didn't expect Adrian to become a world-renowned humanitarian or even to find love (in fact, I was sure the probability of the latter was zero). Yet Townsend manages to restrain Adrian from any sort of character development; in fact, I think he might actually un-develop, if such a thing is possible.
The back of my edition has quotations from various publications. The Evening Standard suggests that rather than (or perhaps in addition to) identifying with Adrian, he's a useful creation because "no matter what your troubles may be, Adrian Mole is sure to make you feel better." I get that; part of the appeal of comedy is finding humour in the tribulations of other people. My point, however, is that there is little humour to be found in Adrian's situation. Most of it is of his own invention, and thus unavoidable. It would have been better if Adrian were less of an idiot, a more redeeming man faced with the burden of overbearing, maritally-confused parents and step-parents while trying to raise two kids. As it is, I feel better knowing I'm no longer reading about Adrian Mole!
According to The Times, "Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation . . . every sentence is witty and well thought out. . . ." That is pure-grade blurb hyperbole. The majority of sentences in this book are dull or, at best, mildly amusing. I did appreciate Townsend's intentional, subtle use of grammatical errors to create a more authentic epistolary experience.
As an aside, I'd also like to give a shout-out to the New Statesman. Apparently their regular blurb-writer was out sick, because someone in the office decided it was appropriate to string-together several adjectives: "poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating" and call it a blurb (I kid you not; that is the entire quotation).
The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole is a perfect example of someone trying to create an exception to the rule and failing miserably. It contains the sort of random plot developments and incredible acts that, if done well, make a humourous novel awesome by definition. By the same token, however, it's very difficult to do it well. There's no middle ground, and if it doesn't work, it plunges the book into mediocrity. I always think of Douglas Coupland when considering this phenomenon. Coupland's books are rife with insane plot developments (my favourites are usually in JPod, which Coupland then leveraged into a hilarious TV series for the CBC). He does it so well that his books, at least in my opinion, are exactly what The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole attempts to be. Yet Coupland does occasionally slip up, and when he does, it markedly detracts from the quality of his book. Poor humour is worse than no humour.
My comparison to Coupland will continue as I examine the next gimmick that Townsend employs: like Coupland, she writes herself into the book! Like Coupland, this fictional Townsend is a caricature, portrayed as a hack and a jerk. Unlike Coupland, who plays a large and direct role in JPod, Townsend doesn't actually appear in person; she's just mentioned by several characters, including Adrian himself. Unfortunately, this reduced role feels like the rest of the book's gimmicks do: throw-aways without which the book would have been better.
Epistolary novels, in general, are harder for me to appreciate than the more conventional contemporary novel format. Even Coupland's The Gum Thief didn't persuade me to join the dark side. Now, like any story, the success of an epistolary work depends more on its writer than the fact that it's written as a series of letters. Douglas Coupland executed his novel well, which earned it a respectable 3 of 5 stars. Sue Townsend, on the other hand, has written a series of one-off joke snippets with reusable characters and combined them to create a novel-length work. And that's my main objection to contemporary epistolary novels; it's just so easy to be lazy with the actual letters or diary entries themselves. Since any epistolary work will naturally feel somewhat jumbled after it has been assembled, owing to the discrete nature of each entry, it's harder to detect this overall lesser quality than it is in a novel with a more unified narrative.
Are there funny parts in The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole? Certainly, but they are few and far between, and once used, Townsend tends to parade them around time and again until they have long overstayed their welcome. That's true of the book itself as well.
Adrian Mole, at this point in his life, is the single father of two boys (by different mothers), living in housing, and struggling to make a career for himself as a writer. We're supposed to identify with Adrian on some level, I guess, and find humour in his insane experiences with crazy relatives, random elderly people, and the head of comedy at the BBC. So you'll have to forgive me, fans of Adrian Mole, when I say that I think Adrian is an idiot.
I don't really want to identify with someone as deluded and irresponsible as Adrian. Sure, the people in his life use him quite a bit and seldom show him much respect. I sympathize. I don't empathize, however, because on top of all those hardships, Adrian creates more in a ceaseless fashion that is a neurosis all to itself. He's paranoid, obsessive, and bland. There's very little to like about Adrian. Usually, when faced with a main character like this, I take it as a sign that the story is one of gradual redemption as the character shoulders responsibility after responsibility. I didn't expect Adrian to become a world-renowned humanitarian or even to find love (in fact, I was sure the probability of the latter was zero). Yet Townsend manages to restrain Adrian from any sort of character development; in fact, I think he might actually un-develop, if such a thing is possible.
The back of my edition has quotations from various publications. The Evening Standard suggests that rather than (or perhaps in addition to) identifying with Adrian, he's a useful creation because "no matter what your troubles may be, Adrian Mole is sure to make you feel better." I get that; part of the appeal of comedy is finding humour in the tribulations of other people. My point, however, is that there is little humour to be found in Adrian's situation. Most of it is of his own invention, and thus unavoidable. It would have been better if Adrian were less of an idiot, a more redeeming man faced with the burden of overbearing, maritally-confused parents and step-parents while trying to raise two kids. As it is, I feel better knowing I'm no longer reading about Adrian Mole!
According to The Times, "Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation . . . every sentence is witty and well thought out. . . ." That is pure-grade blurb hyperbole. The majority of sentences in this book are dull or, at best, mildly amusing. I did appreciate Townsend's intentional, subtle use of grammatical errors to create a more authentic epistolary experience.
As an aside, I'd also like to give a shout-out to the New Statesman. Apparently their regular blurb-writer was out sick, because someone in the office decided it was appropriate to string-together several adjectives: "poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating" and call it a blurb (I kid you not; that is the entire quotation).
The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole is a perfect example of someone trying to create an exception to the rule and failing miserably. It contains the sort of random plot developments and incredible acts that, if done well, make a humourous novel awesome by definition. By the same token, however, it's very difficult to do it well. There's no middle ground, and if it doesn't work, it plunges the book into mediocrity. I always think of Douglas Coupland when considering this phenomenon. Coupland's books are rife with insane plot developments (my favourites are usually in JPod, which Coupland then leveraged into a hilarious TV series for the CBC). He does it so well that his books, at least in my opinion, are exactly what The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole attempts to be. Yet Coupland does occasionally slip up, and when he does, it markedly detracts from the quality of his book. Poor humour is worse than no humour.
My comparison to Coupland will continue as I examine the next gimmick that Townsend employs: like Coupland, she writes herself into the book! Like Coupland, this fictional Townsend is a caricature, portrayed as a hack and a jerk. Unlike Coupland, who plays a large and direct role in JPod, Townsend doesn't actually appear in person; she's just mentioned by several characters, including Adrian himself. Unfortunately, this reduced role feels like the rest of the book's gimmicks do: throw-aways without which the book would have been better.
Epistolary novels, in general, are harder for me to appreciate than the more conventional contemporary novel format. Even Coupland's The Gum Thief didn't persuade me to join the dark side. Now, like any story, the success of an epistolary work depends more on its writer than the fact that it's written as a series of letters. Douglas Coupland executed his novel well, which earned it a respectable 3 of 5 stars. Sue Townsend, on the other hand, has written a series of one-off joke snippets with reusable characters and combined them to create a novel-length work. And that's my main objection to contemporary epistolary novels; it's just so easy to be lazy with the actual letters or diary entries themselves. Since any epistolary work will naturally feel somewhat jumbled after it has been assembled, owing to the discrete nature of each entry, it's harder to detect this overall lesser quality than it is in a novel with a more unified narrative.
Are there funny parts in The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole? Certainly, but they are few and far between, and once used, Townsend tends to parade them around time and again until they have long overstayed their welcome. That's true of the book itself as well.
June 29, 2023
Definitely one of the high points of the series - the British humour that’s in all of them are more or less constant here, at the same time, the serious, sometimes dark, sides of Adrian’s life makes it a really good reading experience. I feel I got to know him better in this book even after reading 6 previous ones consisting mostly of his diaries. Bit of a surprise, but a really good one.
April 13, 2019
Tenho demasiado apego ao imaginário Adrian Mole para avaliar isto objectivamente. Fico perdida nas referências a famosos para mim "anónimos". E só por isso estou a ser fuinha na avaliação.
January 8, 2015
The Adrian Mole series is my favourite book series ever. Saying that, this is definitely the weakest offering. The font is very large, probably to bulk it out to a similar length to the other Adrian Mole books. The book is disjointed and repetitive - however, one can accredit this so the fact that the entries were initally published in a newspaper and were later compiled and published in this form. I understood this when I was reading it and am willing to let Susan Townsend off for this. My main issue with this book however is how unlikable Adrian is in this volume. Adrian has never been wholly likable character - he's rude, arrogant and hypocritical at times - but usually Townsend successfully balances the line between Adrian being a lovable oath and a horrible brute. She doesn't really succeed in balancing it here, perhaps due to the disjointed publishing of the entries, having been published weekly in the paper. However as a fan of the series this book is still readable and enjoyable; Adrian just seems slightly OTT here.
December 26, 2011
This is the first book in the series where I felt Sue Townsend really couldn't be bothered to write any more about Adrian Mole. It seems to be written differently - not as much about his life and the life of those around him, but focussing more on his commentary of all the world events that were happening around this time. I know she's always done that but it seemed like that's all that was happening in this one. I know it was written after the Weapons of Mass Destruction, and maybe that's why it reads like an 'afterthought'.
May 15, 2019
Absolutely pointless. Plot lines change back and forward and repeat themselves, first he's on holiday, then he's not, then he's on holidays again.
Ignores details of previous books and later books would ignore the events of this one so the best thing to do is avoid being frustrated and skip this altogether.
Ignores details of previous books and later books would ignore the events of this one so the best thing to do is avoid being frustrated and skip this altogether.
May 31, 2012
I grew up reading the Adrian Mole diaries and remember them being very funny. It has been some years since I looked at them and so when I found this in the library I was eager to read it. What I have learnt is that what was funny in my late teens is no where near as funny in my 30's! I am not sure if this is because the style is slightly different in that it mentions world events quite frequently compared to the original books (This book was originally serialised in a British newspaper)or my sense of humour has changed. Probably both.
The character has not developed very far from the original books unfortunately but what was funny when written from the perspective of a teenage Adrian is not as funny from the perspective of a 40 year old Adrian. His parents constant splitting up and getting together is starting to get a bit boring now as is the 'relationship' with Pandora. Pandora could have been completely left out of this book and it would not have been any poorer for the exclusion.
As much as I have loved the Adrian Mole diaries I hope that Sue Townsend has learned from this and will not write about Adrian again so people remember the character fondly.
I am glad I did not buy this book and only borrowed it from the library as I would have been disappointed if I had purchased it. On the plus side it is a quick read as it is not a particularly long book and does not require any thought to read it.
The character has not developed very far from the original books unfortunately but what was funny when written from the perspective of a teenage Adrian is not as funny from the perspective of a 40 year old Adrian. His parents constant splitting up and getting together is starting to get a bit boring now as is the 'relationship' with Pandora. Pandora could have been completely left out of this book and it would not have been any poorer for the exclusion.
As much as I have loved the Adrian Mole diaries I hope that Sue Townsend has learned from this and will not write about Adrian again so people remember the character fondly.
I am glad I did not buy this book and only borrowed it from the library as I would have been disappointed if I had purchased it. On the plus side it is a quick read as it is not a particularly long book and does not require any thought to read it.
July 21, 2017
This is another one of the weaker Mole books, and I think it boils down to the fact that it's actually a collection of short columns appearing in the newspaper. That becomes increasingly obvious when there are multiple plot lines that come and go within 3 pages, as well as some very heavy-handed lines dropped in to explain to unfamiliar people exactly who the characters are and what the situation and context is.
Despite the writing style, though, the plot in this is fairly okay. It doesn't live up to the Cappuccino Years in its soap opera fashion - probably due to the way plotlines are very quickly dropped and forgotten about. But still enjoyable enough to speed through.
The only bugbear I have is when they start mentioning Sue Townsend's plagiarisation of Adrian's life. I didn't like it in True Confessions, and I still don't like it now. I like the fictional fourth wall being there, and I don't really enjoy the clever responses talking about how a woman is ripping off his life and selling his diaries.
Despite the writing style, though, the plot in this is fairly okay. It doesn't live up to the Cappuccino Years in its soap opera fashion - probably due to the way plotlines are very quickly dropped and forgotten about. But still enjoyable enough to speed through.
The only bugbear I have is when they start mentioning Sue Townsend's plagiarisation of Adrian's life. I didn't like it in True Confessions, and I still don't like it now. I like the fictional fourth wall being there, and I don't really enjoy the clever responses talking about how a woman is ripping off his life and selling his diaries.
August 17, 2019
There were parts of this that were highly entertaining, and which I loved. However, this was my least favourite of the series so far (bearing in mind, since I'm reading in publication order, this is book 7 for me). I thought, considering the timeframe it covers, it would be a diary of the events hinted at in the previous book (chronilogically, book 6 and 7 take place the other way around). The author seems to have totally forgotten about those plot points though, since things happen quite differently to how the previous book led me to believe they had. Also, while we did get glimpses in to the main characters thoughts and feelings about his personal life sometimes, there was more about the world events than his personal life, which doesn't seem right considering how he lives in his own little bubble most of the time in the books set both before and after this one. So, while I liked this book, I didn't love it the way I've loved the others in the series, and would even take the previous book, where the author's representation of a blind person irritated me, over this one.
March 9, 2020
This one will never fully make sense. It was originally written as a series of shorts for The Guardian. So the storylines go up and down and don't always make sense. Published as the seventh, it chronilogically fits as the sixth, just. There are massive continuity errors that make this like an entirely different story to what was in Weapons of Mass destruction. I think it's meant as a joke, shedding a bit of light on what Adrian and his boys did after the conclusion of Cappuccino years.
June 24, 2013
In some regards might be considered funny, I guess. But not really. Thought I haven't read the rest of the series, I might not have the right to judge, but this work by itself tries too hard and has a miniscule amount of humorous parts.
December 7, 2021
Much to my surprise, I discovered this morning that there was an Adrian Mole book I'd never heard of! As a huge fan of the character, who is strikingly more like me than I'd ever like to admit, I was determined to give this a read. Within a few minutes, I had this downloaded onto my e-reader, and I ploughed through it extremely quickly. What a treat it was!
Chronologically, it sits between Cappuccino Years and Weapons of Mass Destruction, and covers the years 1999 to 2001. Although life is still far from perfect for Adrian, things are at least pretty stable in this book - he lives in a decidedly dubious area, but he stays safe and has good relationships with his sons. His parents are still as chaotic as ever, and he still gets nowhere with Pandora. He doesn't get very far with anyone else, either, although attempts are made with Pamela Pigg, who doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as some of the horror shows he's dated (Marigold Flowers, anyone?).
The pace of the book feels a little slower than some of the others, and perhaps a bit more like the first couple of books, which remain the classics of the series. I always felt that Townsend didn't like Adrian Mole very much, and later on seemed to torture him somewhat excessively, visiting all sorts of tragedy and disaster on him. He came across as quite pathetic in the face of it all on occasions too, and was frequently quite unlikeable as a result. This gets things right - Adrian remains the slightly tragic figure that makes him so funny, in that his work and creative endeavours remain chaotic and unsuccessful, but he manages to be a reasonably decent person throughout it all, and has some semblance of a peaceful and good existance. His attempts at novels and poems remain as laughable as ever, and occasionally he'll manage to be a catastrophically naive and unreliable narrator, but a lot of the time, his observations on the world are witty, incisive and pretty spot-on. Mole actually can write!
I see bit of a running gag makes an appearance here, with further reference to Sue Townsend being a failed novelist who has stolen Adrian's diaries. I think it might have been pushed a little bit too far here!
The book is less political than some of the Mole books. The early ones obviously have a pretty big dig at Thatcherism, which is hardly surprising. Later ones really rip Blair's government apart, which I do sometimes feel a little uncomfortable with. While he was far from perfect, I do feel the Blair/Brown years were significantly better than the governments we had immediately before and immediately after. I think Townsend belonged to a group of left-wingers who went to great lengths to complain about Blairism, and that this was instrumental in Cameron's rise to power in 2010. Whatever mistakes Blair made, the shitshow we've had since has been a million times worse for the weakest in society, and has made our nation an international pariah and laughing-stock. I do get a bit angry about this - fine, campaign for real left-wing governments if you want them, but the constant sniping has led us right back to the Tories ripping everything to pieces. I'm glad there's a lot less of it in this book.
I was quite surprised to see 9/11 almost completely glossed over, which in a way was disappointing, as I was keen to see what Mole would have made of it, but it's probably far too sensitive a topic to deal with, so the solution adopted - a gap of about two weeks in Adrian's diary - is probably the right one. The events of that era are covered, though - Adrian's friend Mohammed is arrested on pathetic anti-terrorist grounds, and Adrian campaigns for his release, leading to his own arrest. It's a pretty sharp commentary on civil liberties, privacy and freedom at a particularly paranoid point in history.
Anyway - it's not perfect, but it's much, much better than some of the later books, which really did go overboard with the tragedy, melodrama and political comment. This feels much more like a much better balance. The e-book version I downloaded has some nice extra material, including an interview with Sue Townsend, a bit of biography, and blurb for all her published works. She's no longer with us, of course, having passed away in 2014. She left behind an unfinished Mole book which is clearly never going to see the light of day. It's a real shame. I'd like to think he met with success and happiness in the end. He's pretty decent, really.
Chronologically, it sits between Cappuccino Years and Weapons of Mass Destruction, and covers the years 1999 to 2001. Although life is still far from perfect for Adrian, things are at least pretty stable in this book - he lives in a decidedly dubious area, but he stays safe and has good relationships with his sons. His parents are still as chaotic as ever, and he still gets nowhere with Pandora. He doesn't get very far with anyone else, either, although attempts are made with Pamela Pigg, who doesn't seem anywhere near as bad as some of the horror shows he's dated (Marigold Flowers, anyone?).
The pace of the book feels a little slower than some of the others, and perhaps a bit more like the first couple of books, which remain the classics of the series. I always felt that Townsend didn't like Adrian Mole very much, and later on seemed to torture him somewhat excessively, visiting all sorts of tragedy and disaster on him. He came across as quite pathetic in the face of it all on occasions too, and was frequently quite unlikeable as a result. This gets things right - Adrian remains the slightly tragic figure that makes him so funny, in that his work and creative endeavours remain chaotic and unsuccessful, but he manages to be a reasonably decent person throughout it all, and has some semblance of a peaceful and good existance. His attempts at novels and poems remain as laughable as ever, and occasionally he'll manage to be a catastrophically naive and unreliable narrator, but a lot of the time, his observations on the world are witty, incisive and pretty spot-on. Mole actually can write!
I see bit of a running gag makes an appearance here, with further reference to Sue Townsend being a failed novelist who has stolen Adrian's diaries. I think it might have been pushed a little bit too far here!
The book is less political than some of the Mole books. The early ones obviously have a pretty big dig at Thatcherism, which is hardly surprising. Later ones really rip Blair's government apart, which I do sometimes feel a little uncomfortable with. While he was far from perfect, I do feel the Blair/Brown years were significantly better than the governments we had immediately before and immediately after. I think Townsend belonged to a group of left-wingers who went to great lengths to complain about Blairism, and that this was instrumental in Cameron's rise to power in 2010. Whatever mistakes Blair made, the shitshow we've had since has been a million times worse for the weakest in society, and has made our nation an international pariah and laughing-stock. I do get a bit angry about this - fine, campaign for real left-wing governments if you want them, but the constant sniping has led us right back to the Tories ripping everything to pieces. I'm glad there's a lot less of it in this book.
I was quite surprised to see 9/11 almost completely glossed over, which in a way was disappointing, as I was keen to see what Mole would have made of it, but it's probably far too sensitive a topic to deal with, so the solution adopted - a gap of about two weeks in Adrian's diary - is probably the right one. The events of that era are covered, though - Adrian's friend Mohammed is arrested on pathetic anti-terrorist grounds, and Adrian campaigns for his release, leading to his own arrest. It's a pretty sharp commentary on civil liberties, privacy and freedom at a particularly paranoid point in history.
Anyway - it's not perfect, but it's much, much better than some of the later books, which really did go overboard with the tragedy, melodrama and political comment. This feels much more like a much better balance. The e-book version I downloaded has some nice extra material, including an interview with Sue Townsend, a bit of biography, and blurb for all her published works. She's no longer with us, of course, having passed away in 2014. She left behind an unfinished Mole book which is clearly never going to see the light of day. It's a real shame. I'd like to think he met with success and happiness in the end. He's pretty decent, really.
February 23, 2021
Definitely not one of the better ones. Sue Townsend isalways reliable, of course, setting her hero up and letting inevitable fate smack him in the face, but I think this is a bit of a patchwork, seemingly with some origial material mixed with snippets written for magazines and specials. At one point she even breaks the fourth wall and has Mole describe a woman called Sue Townsend who has been publishing his secret diaries and passing them off a fiction. But of course that doesn't go anywhere. I see there's a reiew on here from someone who read this as her first introduction to Adrian Mole, and i think that's a bit of a tragedy since it'll probably put her off the good stuff.
September 7, 2022
Sátiras e comédia são sempre fixes juntas, one love <3
O Adrian Mole e a sua vida cheia de drama, uma definição seria caótica, porque entre namoradas, no money e críticas fortes à política do Reino Unido...tá perfeito, boas risadas também!
O Adrian Mole e a sua vida cheia de drama, uma definição seria caótica, porque entre namoradas, no money e críticas fortes à política do Reino Unido...tá perfeito, boas risadas também!
February 14, 2023
Niet uitgelezen, te saai.
February 14, 2023
Dalej nie wiem o czym to do końca było, ale dowiedziałam się co to nocna zmaza, soooo, trh na plus.
May 16, 2023
Wat kan ik zeggen? Ik hou van Adrian Mole
June 26, 2021
Originally written: 10/03/19.
This is the second-to-last book in the series. It's eleven pm and I'm writing this in bed, the final book on my night stand, waiting to be started. I'm not ready to be done with these characters though, and it's not as if there's an active fan community I can dive into afterwards that will help me cope with the loss.
Lost Diaries answered some of the questions I had at the end of Weapons, anyway, because it was set in the interim between it and Cappuccino.
Mohammed was one of the best side characters this time, and I hope he features again, even briefly, in the final book. Downside: there was no Nigel this time, and very little Pandora.
The coherence of the Adrian Mole Literary Universe is faltering.
This is the second-to-last book in the series. It's eleven pm and I'm writing this in bed, the final book on my night stand, waiting to be started. I'm not ready to be done with these characters though, and it's not as if there's an active fan community I can dive into afterwards that will help me cope with the loss.
Lost Diaries answered some of the questions I had at the end of Weapons, anyway, because it was set in the interim between it and Cappuccino.
Mohammed was one of the best side characters this time, and I hope he features again, even briefly, in the final book. Downside: there was no Nigel this time, and very little Pandora.
The coherence of the Adrian Mole Literary Universe is faltering.
August 16, 2024
Solid addition to the Mole canon, which is worth reading. However, it isn't as strong as the "main" Mole books, in particular regarding the plot, which could have done with more of a strong narrative thrust. The main narratives are Mole's on/off relationship with Pamela and his parents' on/off marriage, but neither feel strong enough to carry the whole story, particularly not Pamela, who ends up just being a bit player. A stronger love interest would have helped. A couple of additional nitpicks: it is odd that Mole is *again* writing a novel about prehistoric man, but his original attempt, Karg From Kronk (I believe it was called?) from an earlier Mole novel (The Wildnerness Years, I think it was) is never mentioned. Also, the joke about "a writer called Sue Townsend" stealing the Mole diaries is just plain silly. Nevertheless, there is plenty here for Mole fans - but it is just that, one for the fans, and absolutely not one to introduce a new reader to.
March 19, 2013
Loathe as I am to say anything negative about Adrian Mole (being, as I am, a lifelong reader and admirer of Sue Townsend’s work) I found the “Lost Diaries” a bit of a stretch in terms of plot and tone. It wasn’t as funny as I’m used to and seemed more like a franchise grab than like anything really innovative or exciting was happening with Adrian’s character. Disappointing.
September 21, 2013
It was hilarious in parts. Even enjoyable in places. But also hugely irritating that a 32 year old man with 2 sons was simply guided by the need to find a girlfriend instead of a steady job. It continues to amaze me that the author is a woman who has presented life from a boy and a man's viewpoint in such a believable way.
September 3, 2015
Some funny passages in the satirical story, in diary form, of the oblivious Adrian Mole. Not being a Brit, I definitely missed the point of some of the humour, since I didn't always recognize the famous characters. Was this supposed to be a YA book? Pretty obscure for the target reader, if that is the case.
January 24, 2015
This was initially a newspaper column and this is dearly felt. This time the diary entries don't really work in book form. They are quite incoherent and pointing too detailed to "old news" which make them rather uninteresting to read now.
Surely for me the weakest of Adrian's genius diaries!
Surely for me the weakest of Adrian's genius diaries!
April 28, 2014
This is certainly the weakest of the Adrian Mole series. I would assume this is because it was never designed to be read as a book but rather as small chapters in a newspaper. It wasn't helped by a rather bland narrator.
July 8, 2010
Decent, but definetly the weakest of the books. Filler if anything. Still humourous in places though.
August 10, 2010
The first part was familiar, but the ending was new to me.
December 16, 2010
Not the best Adrian Mole I thought - not too many out-laughs but it was OK.
October 7, 2012
Sometimes funny, sometimes a bit over the top.
September 10, 2013
too many unknown British references. I felt I missed a lot. what I understood was funny!
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