THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION FEATURING A BRAND-NEW INTRODUCTION FROM CAITLIN MORAN

'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written' ADAM KAY, GUARDIAN
'Every child in the country should receive a copy on their thirteenth birthday' CAITLIN MORAN
'One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us' OBSERVER

**In 2022 Sue Townsend was awarded the Legacy Achievement Award by the Comedy Women in Print prize**

AS SEEN IN THE TIMES
________

Friday January 2nd

I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home.

Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life as he writes candidly about the dog, his parents' marital troubles and life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual.'

Forty years after it first appeared, Sue Townsend's comic masterpiece continues to be rediscovered by new generations of readers.
________

'The UK's bestselling fiction book of the eighties and one of the great comic creations of the past half-century. Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year' John Self, The Times

'Reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole when I was 14 felt quite like an awakening' GREG DAVIES, Sunday Times

'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'One of Britain's most celebrated comic writers' GUARDIAN

About the Author
Sue Townsend was, and remains, Britain's favourite comic novelist. For over thirty years, after the publication of her instant and iconic bestseller The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 in 1982, she made us weep with laughter and pricked the nation's conscience. Seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries followed, and all were highly acclaimed bestsellers. She also published five other hugely popular novels - including The Queen and I and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - as well as writing numerous well-received plays. Remarkably, Sue did not learn to read until she was eight and left school with no qualifications. As beloved by critics as she was by readers the length and breadth of the nation, she chronicled the lives of ordinary people in Britain through times of upheaval and great social change. She lived in Leicester all her Life, dying in the city that she loved in 2014.

Reviews
Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year -- John Self * The Times *
One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us * Observer *
Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it * Sunday Telegraph *
An exquisite social comedy * Daily Telegraph *
A satire of our times. Very funny indeed * Sunday Times *
Marvellous, touching and screamingly funny . . . set to become as much a cult book as The Catcher in the Rye



Book Information
ISBN 9780241615300
Author Sue Townsend
Format Hardback
Page Count 304
Imprint Michael Joseph Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 340g
Dimensions(mm) 204mm * 138mm * 26mm