''The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾'' is the first book in the

Adrian Mole Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared (as "Nigel") as part of a comic diary featured in a short-lived arts magazine (called simply ''magazine'') pub ...

series of comedic fiction, written by

Sue Townsend Susan Lillian Townsend, FRSL (née Johnstone, 2 April 194610 April 2014), was an English writer and humorist whose work encompasses novels, plays and works of journalism. She was best known for creating the character Adrian Mole. After writing ...

. The book 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 The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana as well as the birth of Prince William. Mole is 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 7 October 1982. Sequels include (in chronological order): *'' The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole'' *''

The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole ''The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole, Margaret Hilda Roberts and Susan Lilian Townsend'' is the third book in the Adrian Mole series, written by Sue Townsend. It focuses on the worries and regrets of a teenage (supposed) intellectual. ...

'' *''

Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians ''Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major'' is a 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 s ...

'' (all of which were contained in '' Adrian Mole: From Minor to Major'') *'' Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years'' *'' Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years'' *''

Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction ''Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction'' is Sue Townsend's sixth full Adrian Mole novel (as opposed to ''Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians'' and the Guardian serial). It is set in 2002/3 and Adrian is 33¾ years of age. The life o ...

'' *'' Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years''

Reception

The book was a best-seller, and had sold 1.9 million copies by November 1985. On 5 November 2019 '' BBC News'' included ''The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾'' on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

Adaptations

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 Alan Tudor Blaikley (23 March 1940 – 4 July 2022) was an English songwriter and composer, best known for writing a series of international hits in the 1960s and 1970s in collaboration with Ken Howard, including the UK number ones "Have I the ...

. There was also a 1985 television series. A successful stage production ran at the Wyndham's Theatre, London, in 1984-1986, that included

Simon Gipps-Kent Simon Gipps-Kent (born Simon Trevor Kent; 25 October 1958 – 16 September 1987) was a prolificAlistair D. McGown & Mark J. Dochert''The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama – An Encyclopedia'' British Film Institute, 2003, p. 97. 20 ...

and followed with a road tour.SimonGipps-Kent.info / ''Theatre Door Doings''
A stage musical adaptation by

Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary are a London-based musical theatre writing partnership. They met at Bristol University, where they were studying Drama and Music respectively. Musicals Their first musical '' Jet Set Go!'' ran at the 2008 Edinburg ...

opened at Leicester's

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...

Theatre in March 2015. Townsend had been working on the project at the time of her death in 2014.

References

1982 British novels British young adult novels Fictional diaries Novels set in Leicestershire Novels set in the 1980s BILBY Award-winning works Adrian Mole novels Methuen Publishing books {{1980s-epistolary-novel-stub