I can't wait until I am fully mature and can make urban conversation with intellectuals. Growing up among inferiors in Great Britain isn't easy for a sensitive fifteen-year-old "poet of the Midlands" like Adrian Mole, considering everything in the world is conspiring to scar him for life: His hormones are in a maelstrom; his mother is pregnant (at her age!); his girlfriend, Pandora, is in shutdown; radio stardom isn't panning out; he's become allergic to non-precious metals; and passing his exams is as dire a crisis as the Falkland Islands. From weathering a profound but shaky romance with the love of his life to negotiating his parents' reconciliation to writing his poetry on restroom walls (why on earth did he sign his name?).
"Part Woody Allen, part a kindred spirit to the heroes of Philip Roth's early novellas, Adrian inspires a rare warmth and affection. . . . As sad and devastating as it is laugh-out-loud funny . . . A delight!"
The New York Times on The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾
"If Vol. 1 of young Mole's reflections has already been elevated to the classics division, this is quite fit to join it."
Time Out
"Touching, as well as hilariously amusing. . . I was utterly hooked. . . . [It] made me laugh out loud and was sharp as knives."
