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Original poster

Remembering Adrian Mole and Sue Townsend on their birthdays today

267 replies

OneBusyFinch · 02/04/2026 07:21

oh these wonderful wonderful books, still make me laugh and I do re-read frequently!

Adrian would have been 58 today and the superb Sue Townsend would have been celebrating her 80th birthday.

OP posts:
Tonissister · 02/04/2026 10:15

I used to teach reluctant readers. One boy aged 14 had never read fiction in his life and refused to. I asked him to read aloud from the first Adrian Mole book. He started to laugh. He asked to borrow it. His mum stopped me in the street years later to say he had read every single one in the series. Sue Townsend was a genius.

ClawsandEffect · 02/04/2026 10:15

Happyhettie · 02/04/2026 10:05

That has happened to a child I taught…. No other member of staff go the Adrian Mole reference sadly.

Show quote history

Oh no! The small amount of pleasure you could have taken from that revulsion and it was denied you. I feel your pain.

dizzydizzydizzy · 02/04/2026 10:15

Adrian Mole is 59 today! Me too!!! 🎂😢🎉

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Books
FlorenceAndTheVagine · 02/04/2026 10:19

Whosthetabbynow · 02/04/2026 09:58

Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland

I remember as a child reading this and thinking that he was a very talented writer 😂

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 02/04/2026 10:21

Good grief, 59??

Original poster
OneBusyFinch · 02/04/2026 10:23

dizzydizzydizzy · 02/04/2026 10:15

Adrian Mole is 59 today! Me too!!! 🎂😢🎉

oh no, did I get it wrong in my OP? I thought he would have been 58 today

OP posts:
NerrSnerr · 02/04/2026 10:24

My brother used to buy me the Adrian Mole books on my birthday as a teen. Really grateful he did! I was a horror fan so I suspect they would have passed me by. I need to re-read. Such amazing books.

ladyamy · 02/04/2026 10:26

LostinSpace99 · 02/04/2026 07:29

Thanks for this, I will dig out one of the books today. My all time favourites. Pandora, I implore ya.....

...Don't ignore me!

Whosthetabbynow · 02/04/2026 10:27

Tonissister · 02/04/2026 10:15

I used to teach reluctant readers. One boy aged 14 had never read fiction in his life and refused to. I asked him to read aloud from the first Adrian Mole book. He started to laugh. He asked to borrow it. His mum stopped me in the street years later to say he had read every single one in the series. Sue Townsend was a genius.

Edited

Brilliant! So easy to read and so very, very funny x

DreamingOfGeneHunt · 02/04/2026 10:27

"Ps: Cindy has called the baby Carlsberg."

dizzydizzydizzy · 02/04/2026 10:30

OneBusyFinch · 02/04/2026 10:23

oh no, did I get it wrong in my OP? I thought he would have been 58 today

Edited
Show quote history

He is definitely 59 today!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Mole

PullTheBricksDown · 02/04/2026 10:34

Janeyso · 02/04/2026 08:49

The description of the school trip to London is one of my favourite pieces of comic writing

Class 4D's Trip to the British Museum

7am Boarded coach
7.05 Ate packed lunch, drank low-calorie drink

Thank you for all the entertainment, Sue 🙌

girlwhowearsglasses · 02/04/2026 10:35

I will never look at a black wall without thinking of Adrian trying to paint over his Noddy wallpaper.....

ChocolateMunchBunch · 02/04/2026 10:35

I read the first two many times but don’t think I got through all the adult ones. Time to see if the library has them here in NZ 🤞

Did any of you watch the TV series in the 80s? One of my favourite TV memories

girlwhowearsglasses · 02/04/2026 10:38

PrudenceDictates · 02/04/2026 10:11

I'm also the same age as Adrian Mole and loved the books!
The dog known only as "the dog", Neil Armstrong Comprehensive School, best friend Nigel, Ms Fossington-Gore...!

On doing badly in exams "I may be an intellectual, but at the same time, I'm not very bright" 😅

OH yes! I call ours 'the dog' instead of her name - because of this

Daffodilsinthespring · 02/04/2026 10:39

I had to look up as I hadn’t heard Gian Simacco had died! He hasn’t. You must mean the character, Adrian. I went to the same school as the actor.

KitKateKat · 02/04/2026 10:46

This thread is great! I was asked at an ice breaker what my Mastermind topic would be and genuinely it would be The Adrian Mole Books. There is not a word of those books I don't know. My favourite part is Adrian's brush with fame for Offally Good!

AndAllOurYesterdays · 02/04/2026 11:21

GloiredeDijon · 02/04/2026 07:50

I am the same age as Adrian.

My favourite lines (which demonstrate Sue Townsend’s genius in summing up the feelings of the era with just a few words) are in relation to Adrian and his family talking about the Falklands War.

” At teatime I was looking at our world map, but I couldn’t see the Falkland Islands anywhere. My mother eventually found them under a crumb of fruitcake.”

And didn't his dad panic as he thought the Falklands were off the coast of Scotland!

PullTheBricksDown · 02/04/2026 11:33

AndAllOurYesterdays · 02/04/2026 11:21

And didn't his dad panic as he thought the Falklands were off the coast of Scotland!

Show quote history

'The Argies could be down in the Midlands by tonight!' 🤣

SquatBetty · 02/04/2026 11:33

Friday March 6th

GRANDMA'S FUNERAL

(Last paragraph)

I don't like to think of her lying under the earth, alone and cold. Still, at least she was never burgled or mugged. She is safe from all that now.

From the Wilderness Years - so moving, gets me every time. Sue Townsend was a brilliant writer.

scalt · 02/04/2026 11:39

ClawsandEffect · 02/04/2026 09:57

The school trip is the best bit for me (don't remember which book). Ate his packed lunch and was sick before the bus left the school car park.

It’s in the first book, “secret diary”. Adrian wasn’t sick; Barry Kent was, three times. The school trip was an absurdly detailed timeline of the trip.

  • coach driver stops coach, and asks everyone to stop giving V-signs to lorry drivers.
  • Coach driver refuses to drive on motorway until “bloody teachers control kids”.
AndAllOurYesterdays · 02/04/2026 11:40

Another that's stuck in the mind is Adrian's grandma getting fidgety at church on Christmas day as she was worried about her potatoes. She just captured everyday life and that era so well.

iwishtoo · 02/04/2026 11:41

Whosthetabbynow · 02/04/2026 09:58

Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland

@Whosthetabbynow If I drive through Leicestershire (or on the M40 through Warwickshire) I always think of this phrase 😁

scalt · 02/04/2026 11:47

”Jake dug his fists into the womb-like pockets of his anorak, and with his remaining hand, he adjusted the strap on his Adidas sports bag.”
At least two of Adrian’s characters had three hands.

“My father said women should be at home cooking. He said it in a whisper so that he wouldn’t be karate-chopped to death.”

We never did find out how Grandma frightened Barry Kent and his father into returning the menaces money.

Yourinmyspot · 02/04/2026 11:52

I love the Adrian Mole books and have read them many times. They even helped me finally pass my GCSE English on the third attempt. One of the pieces of work we had to do was to write from a different character’s perspective from a book. I chose to write as Barry Kent. My English teacher loved it and I got an A for that essay and an A overall.