Adrian Mole The Prostrate Years

By Sue Townsend

Dear Diary,

Remember when we first met Adrian? The year was 1982 and we had inadvertently stumbled upon the secret diary of his 13¾-year-old self. How we laughed when we read about his futile attempts to paint his bedroom black as the Noddy wallpaper kept showing through.

We continued to faithfully follow his exploits as he went through his Growing Pains (1984), which charted the ups and downs of his relationship with one Pandora Braithwaite.

Alas, we drifted apart after that and all through the Wilderness Years (1993) and the Cappuccino Years (1999), our paths never crossed.

Running into him again after all these years brings both a deep sense of joy and a small jolt of shock to realise that he is now on the cusp of 40.

Some things have not changed. He still has literary aspirations and is now writing Plague!, a play set in the medieval countryside, for the local theatre group. But while illusions of grandeur were touching in a young boy, they seem a bit sad and pretentious in a grown man living in a converted pigsty.

Adrian may have his faults, including an inability to see the glaringly obvious, but he is also loyal, generous and kind-hearted. He continues to make friends with lonely pensioners and is unfailingly decent to those he knows, including the unapologetically rascally Bernard Hopkins, “the bookseller from hell”.

Meanwhile, he has to deal with his stubborn five-year-old daughter Gracie, unhappy wife Daisy and other assorted family drama, all the while still carrying a torch for Pandora, now an abrasive politician.

When he is diagnosed with prostate cancer, he faces the prospect of death with a poignantly turbulent mix of bravado, stoicism, fear, panic and petulance. Adrian Mole might be down, but we can never count him out.

P.S: If you like this, read: The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend and revisit the agony and the ecstasy of Moley’s teenage years.

(ST)