N S Ford

Tag: Sue Townsend

  • Review of ‘Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years’ by Sue Townsend

    I’m always sad to reach the end of the Adrian Mole series. This book was not intended to be the final diary, as the author was reportedly working on another before she passed away. I re-read the series every few years and am apprehensive once I reach the last book, as it has some quite upsetting content; Sue Townsend had serious health issues and wanted to incorporate her experience in the book, which is preoccupied with illness, disability and the NHS. In the chronology, it follows The Weapons of Mass Destruction but was published after The Lost Diaries.

    The book is set in 2007-8, referencing events such as Gordon Brown becoming Prime Minister, the collapse of the Northern Rock bank and the ban on indoor smoking in public places. Social trends are also evident, such as the continuing obsession with reality TV, the rise of ebooks and people talking about ‘chavs’. The story sees Adrian’s marriage in crisis, his own and his sister’s paternity in doubt, the bookshop he works in on the brink of closure, his latest literary project foundering, his health taking a nosedive and many other crises. And he’s still in love with Pandora…

    If you’ve read all of the previous books and you really care about the characters, this is a must-read. Don’t expect much hilarity; it’s a rather gloomy book, although sharply observed as always.

    First published in 2009, this edition in 2012 as part of Penguin’s ’30 years of Adrian Mole’ reissues.

  • Review of ‘Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction’ by Sue Townsend

    This is a very bitter novel. Yes, there are hilarious moments and a lot of ironic humour. However, the Iraq War dominates the book and I would be lying if I said every page is laugh-out-loud. It was quite topical when I re-read earlier this year, as Tony Blair had been given a knighthood and many people were angry about it.

    The 5th instalment in the series (if we’re going by publication order, after The Cappuccino Years), or the 6th (if we’re going in chronological order of events, after The Lost Diaries) is set in 2002-4 and sees 35-year-old Adrian working as a bookseller and battling more personal crises than ever. His son Glenn is in the British Army and is going to Iraq, while Adrian is at odds with all of his friends because he supports the war and has trusted Tony Blair… up to now.

    Meanwhile, Adrian’s parents have sold their house and are living on a muddy field while renovating a pigsty. His best friend Nigel is struggling to come to terms with going blind. Adrian is deep into debt, while living in an apartment he can’t afford and even terrorised by swans! His romantic life is worse than ever, as he struggles to escape an engagement with the New Age drip Marigold while falling in love with her rebellious sister Daisy.

    The book is not my favourite of the series but I appreciate that it’s the most incisive and fiercely political. You definitely need to have read and enjoyed the previous books and also care what happens to the characters.

    First published in 2004.

  • Review of ‘The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole 1999-2001’ by Sue Townsend

    A welcome later addition to the Adrian Mole series, this book spans the gap between The Cappuccino Years and The Weapons of Mass Destruction.

    The idea behind the ‘lost diaries’ is that they were confiscated by overzealous police in the wake of the new terrorist threat of 9/11. Several years later, the police had a clear-out and returned the diaries to Adrian.

    The years at the end of the old millennium and into the new find our favourite self-proclaimed intellectual a single father with two sons by different mothers. He begins several new works of fiction that never go anywhere and tries to navigate the pitfalls of parenthood. Meanwhile, his parents are marrying for the third time, the foot and mouth crisis is happening, everyone is glued to Big Brother and his first love Pandora continues her political career. New characters in the story include garage owner Mohammed, sinister folk singer Alan Clarke, lonely elderly lady Mrs Wormington, the criminal neighbours the Ludlows, pretentious half-brother Brett and romantic interest Pamela Pigg.

    As always, the writing is packed with wry social commentary. It can also be considered evidence that two decades ago (or thereabouts), when these diaries are set, was the beginning of our current information age. Email and the internet are more of a feature in the book, with most characters having access and Adrian commenting that the year 2000 was 1984 as his ex-wife knows everything about him via technology.

    If you’re reading through the series, this instalment isn’t essential for the chronology (no major turning points in Adrian’s personal life) but if you’re a completist then go for it.

    Published in 2008 (book format), first published in 1999-2001 (The Guardian).

  • Review of ‘Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years’ by Sue Townsend

    What were you up to in 1997-8? The Cappuccino Years is the first Adrian Mole diary which covers an era that I’m old enough to remember. I was too young to know about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and the transfer of Hong Kong to China. I’m not sure I even knew about the death of Princess Diana, but I’m almost certain that I remember the election frenzy which swept Tony Blair’s Labour Party into power. Ultimately, I’m left with the Spice Girls and Teletubbies. I remember those, for sure. And of course Opal Fruits (which Adrian has an addiction to) – these were actually renamed Starburst in the UK in 1998.

    A short leap after The Wilderness Years, this diary sees Adrian in his thirties, working as a chef in Soho, divorced and a single dad. He quite often finds himself living in his parents’ house again and wonders what has really changed. He’s still not over Pandora, who’s an ambitious MP, one of the ‘Blair babes’. As usual, his naivety provides some humour – he wonders why there’s ‘talcum powder’ on his boss’s nose, he is writing a play which the BBC inexplicably aren’t interested in, he can’t tell that women are attracted to him until it’s too late. Social class is, as always, a main theme, evidenced here by the differences between his and Pandora’s parents (who have embarrassingly swapped partners). There’s also the welcome return of Nigel, Adrian’s former best friend, who’s now out of the closet. I can’t ever think of anything to fault with these diaries because although they’re funny, they seem more like real diaries than novels. There’s definitely a story arc, a pattern of rise and fall, but it doesn’t matter so much.

    First published in 1999. Strangely described on the back cover as ‘Twenty-first century Mole’. Either they didn’t check what years the diary covers, or they meant that the book is being read in the 21st century.

  • Review of ‘Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years’ by Sue Townsend

    ‘Probably the funniest book of 1993,’ said The Times. ‘It could even make John Major laugh,’ claimed Today. I don’t know if that’s true, but certainly it’s funny. I think it’s the darkest instalment in the series so far, as Adrian has grown into adulthood (he’s nearly 24) and he has more problems than ever. Bereavement, homelessness, depression, career crisis, in addition to the usual unrequited love, poor self-image, money issues and complicated family relationships. It’s a more sophisticated book, as Adrian writes his awful novel, which incorporates whatever’s going on in his life, and then the character in his novel starts to write a novel – and finally the character in that novel does too. It all goes a bit ‘meta’. There is also more of a sense that The Wilderness Years is a novel with a considered ending, rather than simply a diary.

    Most of our favourite characters are back – his parents Pauline and George Mole (constantly splitting and getting back together), feisty sister Rosie, horrible pensioner Bert, principled Grandma, bully-turned-literature star Barry Kent and of course Pandora, the love of his life, who prefers the company of real intellectuals. There are some new faces too, such as the alcoholic landlady Mrs Hedge, the dreadfully smooth professor Cavendish, violent restaurant-owner Savage and sweet newsagent girl Bianca, who’s in love with Adrian but he doesn’t believe it. The locations vary between Oxford, London, Leicester, Russia and Greece. As always, current events are referenced, such as the Gulf War, AIDS epidemic (including the death of Freddie Mercury) and the time that Prince William got hit on the head by a golf club. An unintentionally creepy detail is that Adrian (in 1991) was worried that Princess Diana would die… of pneumonia.

    I would say that this book is a must-read if you enjoyed the previous books in the series, but be aware that the humour is darker and the content is sometimes desperately sad. It’s a turning point for the series, as the books which follow it are along the same lines.

    First published in 1993.

  • My most-read authors

    Which authors’ books have you read the most? I checked my spreadsheet, which records my reading since 2002, and searched for the number of books by authors I know I’ve read a lot. I here present to you a list of my top 10 most-read authors! Since my records began, that is…

    10. Philip Pullman – 20 books. The majority of these would be re-reads of His Dark Materials, but I have also read the Sally Lockhart series, some standalone books and, much more recently, The Secret Commonwealth.

    9. H G Wells – 21 books. Obviously some of these are re-reads (such as The Time Machine) – I couldn’t name 21 books Wells wrote, although I know he was very prolific and that only a small number of his works are famous today.

    8. Christopher Pike – 21 books. This is a tie with H G Wells but I have given him 8th place because I used to have a Point Horror short story collection which included Pike and which I read 3 times. The best Pike book is, I think, Remember Me.

    7. Daphne du Maurier – 24 books. We had an almost-complete set of her works at home and so I felt qualified enough to write a ‘recommended author’ post on her. I’ve re-read a few, most notably Rebecca, which I studied in comparison to Jane Eyre.

    6. Arthur C Clarke – 26 books. I was quite surprised at how many of his books turned up when I searched my records. However, I’ve re-read the ‘Odyssey’ series and some short story collections several times, plus a few other novels, and they all added up.

    5. J K Rowling – 27 books. This number would be higher if my pre-2002 reading was included – I was hooked on the first 3 books and was extremely excited when the 4th was published! As you might expect, nearly all of the reads were Harry Potter books or from the same world, such as Fantastic Beasts. The exception is The Casual Vacancy.

    4. Paul Stewart – 27 books. Considering how many books there are in the Edge Chronicles series – for which he collaborated with Chris Riddell and which I’m re-reading again – this number of reads isn’t surprising. Others by him I’ve read are Muddle Earth and The Weather Witch. Although he is tying with J K Rowling, he is placed here on the list because the number of reads will soon be higher, as I still have several more of the Edge books to re-read.

    3. Sue Townsend – 28 books. Most of these are the Adrian Mole series – my favourite being The Secret Diary – but as demonstrated in my ‘recommended author’ post, she wrote a variety of things. I’m sad that there won’t be any more.

    2. Anthony Horowitz – 38 books. I love the Diamond Brothers, Alex Rider and Groosham Grange series and have read several of his standalone works too, most recently two of his novels for adults, featuring himself as a character. One of my favourite books at my secondary school library was his Horowitz Horror short story collection.

    And at number 1, my most-read author is…

    Terry Pratchett! I’ve read 52 of his books (including re-reads) so far. I haven’t read all of the Discworld series – probably three quarters of them, though. I’m starting to re-read the few I own, such as The Witches Trilogy. I’ve also read some of his non-Discworld books, such as the Bromeliad trilogy, Johnny Maxwell trilogy, Long Earth series (with Stephen Baxter), Strata, Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman) and The Dark Side of the Sun. I did guess that Terry Pratchett would be my most-read author but I didn’t realise how far ahead of the others he would be!

    Who’s your most-read author? Let me know!

  • Review of ‘The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole’ by Sue Townsend

    This slim volume is a sequel to The Secret Diary and The Growing Pains, but is a collection of shorter pieces, first aired elsewhere, rather than a continuous diary. They span 1984 to 1989, covering Adrian’s late teenage years and his development into a young adult. As usual they are hilarious and bittersweet, with a social conscience. However, I can’t help wishing that they were expanded into a novel, especially now that there won’t be any more in the series.

    Two other authors share this book and are reflected in the full title – Susan Lilian Townsend (generously given some space by Adrian) and the mysterious Margaret Hilda Roberts.

    Sue Townsend‘s pieces cover a solo holiday to Majorca, a writers’ trip to the Soviet Union, ‘Writing for Television’ – the producer wanting to change her script beyond recognition – and ‘Why I Like England’. I love her combination of dry humour and excellent observational skills.

    The diary of Margaret Hilda Roberts of Grantham, aged 14 1/4 (now who could that be?) is wickedly funny but was, no doubt, a more powerful piece of writing at its original time of publication.

    I would say that if you are a fan of the Adrian Mole series, this book is a must-read, even though it isn’t as satisfying as a complete novel.

    First published in 1989. This edition was reprinted by Arrow in 1998.

  • Review of ‘The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole’ by Sue Townsend

    The events in this book are set in 1982-3, following immediately on from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, the day after Adrian went to hospital to have a model aeroplane unglued from his nose. In that sense, the two diaries are really volumes of the same book. However, the content of this one is more sombre and more overtly political, with its preoccupation with Social Security benefits, the Falklands War, Greenham Common and of course it includes 15-year-old Adrian’s famous poem about Margaret Thatcher.

    All of our favourite characters make an appearance, from foul octogenarian Bert Baxter and his vicious Alsatian Sabre, to dictatorial headmaster Pop-Eye Scruton, no-nonsense Grandma, uncool youth club leader Rick Lemon, possibly gay best friend Nigel and illiterate bully Barry Kent. The family dog (which has no name) is again a major character. Adrian’s personal life is chaotic as usual. His immoral parents keep splitting up and getting back together, there are two surprise pregnancies, a bereavement, his O-levels are looming and his on-off girlfriend Pandora wants to keep their relationship chaste. He continues to send his poems to the BBC but has not yet been offered his own show.

    As always, re-reading this book makes me laugh. It’s a modern classic and is packed full of good old British humour, cynicism and soap opera.

    First published in 1984.

  • Review of ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4’ by Sue Townsend

    I love the Adrian Mole series. They’re funny, bittersweet, ironic and socially conscious. They are also a snapshot of the contemporary times in which they were written, with Adrian’s diary presented as if it were real. The first book is therefore set in 1981-2 and refers to events such as the Royal Wedding, Falklands War and the formation of the Social Democratic Party. It also spotlights the burning social issues of the day, such as divorce, latchkey kids, second-wave feminism and racial identity. What I find interesting on my latest re-read is how different things are now. As with The Diary of a Nobody (which, as I mentioned before, popularised the ‘funny diary’ genre), Adrian Mole’s diary is now a classic bestseller. Society and culture have changed a little, although adolescence will always be awkward.

    I first read this book when I was younger than Adrian’s 13 and three quarter years. He’d now be 53! I’ve seen the book categorised as children’s or YA, but I think it’s funnier if you read it as an adult and I’m sure it was intended for adults (the later books in the series certainly are). Either way, there are characters you can identify with, whatever your stage of life.

    This short book consists of diary entries for just over a year, ending with Adrian turning 15. He falls in love, his parents’ marriage breaks down, the dog causes no end of trouble, he accidentally starts a revolution at school and he makes friends with a foul elderly communist. Adrian takes himself very seriously, having the misfortune of being an ‘intellectual’ from a working-class background, yet admittedly not being that clever. His hobbies include writing awful poetry, going to the ‘off-the-streets’ youth club and measuring the length of his ‘thing’.

    I was privileged to see the musical adaptation of this book, at Leicester Curve Theatre in 2015. It was brilliant! Sadly, Sue Townsend did not live to see it. I used to enjoy watching the 1985 TV series, which had a catchy theme tune by Ian Dury.

    First published in 1982. My edition is the 1983 Methuen paperback.

  • Recommended author: Sue Townsend

    Sue Townsend is one of my favourite authors. Everything she wrote was funny, insightful and very readable. This is the third instalment of my recommended authors series – I’ve looked at Daphne du Maurier and Stella Gibbons so far – read on to find out more about Sue Townsend’s work…

    The ‘Adrian Mole’ series are, I think, Sue Townsend’s most famous books and also her best. Beginning with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 in 1982 and ending with The Prostrate Years (2009), the author chronicles the ups and downs of a working class intellectual boy in the classic diary format. Sue Townsend had quite a colourful life and a lot of health problems (these worked their way into her books); sadly she died in 2014 and so there are no more of Adrian’s diaries. Occasionally I see the books in the children’s section of bookshops, but they are actually adult books. They are about life in all its mundanity and quirkiness, while encompassing themes very important to the (socialist) author such as poverty, class, politics, social injustice and (later on) the war on terror. The main reason I read them, however, is because they’re hilarious. Also, I find diary novels really easy to read because the entries are short. Finally, being from the same region of the UK as the author makes the series extra interesting to me. The first book in this series was turned into a musical at Leicester’s Curve Theatre in 2015 (Sue Townsend worked on it but never got to see the performance) which was brilliant and focused on Adrian’s romantic and family life. There was a TV series in the 80s which was pretty good and had a theme tune by Ian Dury.

    Another of Sue Townsend’s older books is The Queen and I (1992). It imagines the country voting to be a republic… and the Royal Family are booted out of the palace and housed on a council estate, where they learn what it’s like to be working class. They find that basically it sucks to be poor but that there are some lovely people out there. I found this book a little dated, but amusing, and it’s a must-read for anyone who wonders what Britain would be like without the monarchy. There was a sequel, Queen Camilla, in 2006.

    Number Ten (published in 2002) is a parody of Tony Blair and Co. in which the Prime Minister attempts to go undercover in Britain to find out what people really think of him. I thought it was OK, but maybe if I’d read it soon after publication and not fifteen years later, it would’ve resonated more.

    The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year (2012) was her last book and is about the effect upon the family (and the world) when a woman won’t leave her bedroom. I remember liking it, but probably wouldn’t read it again. I’ve also read her lesser-known novel Rebuilding Coventry (1988) and trio of plays Bazaar and Rummage / Groping for Words / Womberang. I can tell that J K Rowling’s work is definitely influenced by Sue Townsend, as are many other writers. Both authors feature on my list of top thirty books.

    Have you read any of Sue Townsend’s work? Which authors do you find funny?!