Sue Townsend announced this week she will once again bring life to Adrian Mole, the original underwhelmist and suburban anti-hero.
The tenth book in the series, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year, doesn’t have a title yet but Townsend has revealed several clues as to what faces our most beloved self proclaimed member of the intellegenzia.
“…there are no facilities {where Adrian lives} – the pub has closed, and the shops and the Post Office. It’s true, people now live in villages without any facilities at all. There is a horse therapy centre though. For people, not for horses. People go to sit on them and groom them.”
The last time we met Adrian was in 2009, when he had to up-sticks from his riverside apartment and move into an old detached dump next door to his parents. His batting-out-of-his-league-wife hates the move and resents him, and to top it off he’s having prostate troubles. So three years on and a double-dip recession later how will he be faring? The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, the first book, mentioned lots of events that hold resonance at the moment – Prince William’s birth, the Falklands, a conservative administration – did Adrian watch the Royal wedding? What does he think of Cameron (having listed Thatcher as one of his worst enemies)? Does he watch Made In Chelsea?
Yeah yeah, this might all sound a little dated. It probably is, he’s forty-five for crying out loud. And middle class, condescending humour has been done ad-nauseum, but I can’t think of any other literary series that appeals across generations as successfully as Townsend’s.
If you’ve never bothered with anything past the original trilogy, I can’t recommend the rest of the books highly enough. Adrian gets more disengaged as the diaries progress, and they all replicate the mood of their real life contemporaries brilliantly.
I’ve just downloaded the lot onto my Kindle, in the name of preparation. I wonder if Adrian has a Kindle?
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Written by Becky Shepherd
