Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (original 1993; édition 1994)

This diary recounts further hilarious episodes from the life of Adrian Mole. He is now nearly 24 years of age.

The first entry is from January 1st, 1991 when Adrian has a throbbing head owing to being “forced” to drink excessive amounts of alcohol at his mother’s party the night before. (He obviously is unable to say “no”.)

Sue Townsend describes not only Adrian’s life but the lives of the whole host of characters in his life.

Adrian’s life is dictated by these other people. He is still in love with Pandora, now married to a bisexual semi-aristocrat who wears a monocle, and with a lover called Professor Jack Cavendish (it is Pandora who has the lover, not her husband, though I’m sure he has many too).: he still looks after the centenarian. Bert Baxter, buys his “vile” cigarettes and cuts his “horrible” toenails.

Adrian has an 8-year-old sister, Rosie.

His first love is now Dr Pandora Braithwaite, fluent in Russian, Serbo-Croat and “various other little-used languages” (Though I wouldn’t say Russian is little-used.) She looks more like a supermodel than a Doctor of Philosophy.

At present Adrian is living in Pandora’s box room in Oxford, still hoping to marry her one day, and still hoping to become a famous author.

He is working at the Department of the Environment charged with protecting colonies of newts, paid to champion their rights but privately sick of them.

Adrian is trying to find a girl-friend by a series of blind dates, who either don’t turn up or who leave in a hurry with some lame excuse or other.

He is normal-looking, clean and pleasant, yet can’t get a young woman into his bed.

Adrian’s father had an illegitimate son, Brett, born to his lover, termed Stick Insect by Adrian. His mother had a short affair with the neighbour, Mr Lucas. He himself had an affair with an illiterate woman called Sharon Bott but deserted her when she announced she was pregnant. (Prepare for a series of DNA tests subsequent to these infidelities/affairs.)

Adrian despises himself – he feels he is a loathsome person.

He spends much time penning poems, included in his diary for our edification, and has begun to write an experimental novel, originally written with consonants only.

Feeling that Adrian is in dire need of psychological help, Pandora makes an appointment for him to see her friend, Leonora De Witt, who is a psychotherapist.
Britain is at war with Iraq, and Adrian hires a portable colour TV so he can watch it in bed.

Adrian’s old class-mate, Barry Kent, who bullied him at school, is becoming a famous writer – one of the characters in his book, Dork’s Diary, is coincidentally called Aiden Vole and is an “outrageous caricature” of Adrian – he “is obsessed with matters anal. He is jingoistic, deeply conservative and a failure with women.”

Sue Townsend is one of my absolute favourite authors. The Adrian diaries reflect and parody life in Britain in the years in question.

In my view, and everybody else’s too, I’m sure, Sue Townsend is immensely gifted, and her books are some of the funniest in print. She has a talent for finding the humorous sides of all the negative aspects of life.

I highly recommend that you read this volume too. ( )

The fourth installment of diary entries of Adrian Mole, now an adult still in love with Pandora (although it is no longer mutual) and still misunderstanding most of the events in his life. Adrian might not be a teenager anymore, but he is still wonderfully naive and entertaining. The satire in Townsend's books works because Adrian is so very sincere about everything he believes, although some of his ideas and views are so very ludicrous; he manages to be endearing even when he goes completely bonkers. The audiobook narrator, Nicholas Barnes, does a really great job with Adrian's voice. ( )

As an artist who must go where my pen leads me, I obviously identify with Mr Adrian Mole. Sue Townsend (RIP) manages to get into the mindset of a young, gormless man and takes us along for the ride.

"The Wilderness Years" sees Adrian mong along life's railroad, watching as others in his vicinity make it big, such as Pandora and Barry Kent. There are also other women in his life like Bianca and Jo Jo, and thus more opportunity for Adrian to prove he is as clueless about women as the rest of us.

I stopped reading Adrian Mole not long after this edition but don't let that hold you back from the wilderness. ( )

Always a good time...on to the Capuccino Years! ( )

This book is a definite return to form after the disappointing True Confessions. In this episode of Adrian's life, he is 24 years old, and living in a box room in the flat of Pandora Braithwaite and her husband(!) However, he spends much of the book being bounced from one home to another.

He also encounters a new love interest named Bianca, jealousy over the success of his old adversary Barry Kent, and the trials of trying to finish his own novel 'Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland'.

This book is what all Adrian Mole books should be - funny, touching and surprisingly perceptive on behalf of the author, while Adrian himself still displays his usual signs of self-delusion. Very enjoyable indeed. ( )