Adrian Mole

Adrian Albert Mole (born April 2, 1967) is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared (as "Nigel" Mole) in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence. The first two books appealed to many readers as a realistic and humorous treatment of the inner life of an adolescent boy. They also captured something of the zeitgeist of Britain during the Thatcher period.

Themes

The series has two main themes. The first books concentrate on Adrian's desires and ambitions in life (to marry his teenage sweetheart, publish his poetry and novels, obtain financial security) and his complete failure to achieve them. The series satirises human pretensions, especially, in the first couple of volumes, teenage pretensions.

The second theme is depiction of the social and political situation in Britain, with particular reference to left-wing politics in the 1980s in the first three books. For example, Adrian's parents divorce at a time when that was comparatively rare. His mother becomes a staunch feminist and briefly joined the Greenham Common campaigners. Pandora and her parents are part of an intellectualised and left-wing middle-class that attempted to embrace the working class.

Humour arises from the outworking of larger social forces within a very ordinary household in a very ordinary part of middle England.

The two latest books move in slightly new directions, showing Adrian as an adult in different environments. They are more focused on political satire, mainly examining New Labour, and in the last book, the Iraq war. The intervening book, "", mixes these themes, with events such as the Gulf War seen from Adrian's naive and frustrated point of view, as well as depictions of his experiences of unemployment and public spending cutbacks, both major political issues at the time. In dealing with political events, a constant plot device is that Adrian makes confident predictions and statements that are known to be wrong by the reader, ranging from belief in the Hitler Diaries to Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Biography

Adrian Albert Mole was born in 1967 and grew up with his parents in Leicester, a quintessentially ordinary town in the English Midlands, where in fact the author has spent most of her life. He is an only child until the age of 15, when his polar opposite sister Rosie is born. Adrian is an average boy in many ways, not especially popular or sporty, but he does well enough at school and has friends. Deep inside, however, he perceives himself as a thwarted Great Writer, and spends years working on his novel, "Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland", never to be published. Over several books, he developed a script for a white van comedy serial killer programme, which for some reason the BBC was reluctant to produce.

As a young man he moves to London and takes a job in a Soho restaurant catering to media types. London is going through a foodie renaissance and offal is all the rage. Adrian is persuaded to feature in a television cookery programme called "Offally Good", supposedly to be a celebrity chef; although he is told the programme is a comedy, he typically fails to realise he is being set up as the stooge, the comic straight man.

Adrian ends up working in an antiquarian bookshop. Having lived in relative poverty for much of his life, and for some time in London in actual squalor, he overextends himself financially, lured by the banks' promises of easy credit, and buys a converted loft apartment.

Family

The family is dysfunctional in a manner classic to comic settings. Adrian's parents Pauline and George Mole are working class characters with limited scope who drink and smoke a lot. They are both often unemployed, and have separated, divorced and remarried more than once, often resulting from extramarital affairs. In a reversal of a typical teenager-mother relationship, Pauline berates Adrian for keeping his room "like a bloody shrine". They move from Leicester to Ashby-de-la-Zouch with their dog (only ever referred to as "the dog", who is eventually replaced by "the new dog"). Adrian's paternal grandmother Edna May Mole is also prominent in the early diaries.

Adrian's sister, Rosie Germaine Mole (after feminist Germaine Greer), grows up to be rebellious and "street", in total contrast to Adrian. Despite opposite personalities, the siblings enjoy a close relationship, and Adrian often feels that she is the only family member who truly understands him.

Pauline first leaves George for their neighbour Mr. Lucas an insurance man; George fathers a second son, named Brett, by a lover called Doreen Slater (aka "Stick Insect"); both are soon forgotten. Pauline temporarily marries her much younger lodger Martin Muffet, who eventually leaves her for Adrian's girlfriend Bianca Dartington, giving Adrian and his mother a shared heartbreak. Later, George and Pauline effect a partner swap with Ivan and Tania Braithwaite, only to reunite after Ivan's untimely death.

Adrian fathers three children.
*Glenn Bott-Mole, son of Sharon Bott, whom Adrian fancied at school and had an affair with as a young man. Sharon represents the underclass end of British society.
*William (Wole) Mole, the son of his first wife JoJo, a Nigerian princess. She divorces Adrian and moves back home, and eventually William joins her. He changes his Christian name from William to Wole to make it sound more African. (When he tells Adrian about this, he concludes his son is going to tire soon of his new name, "Wole Mole". This is purely a visual joke, as Wole and Mole do not rhyme; Wole is pronounced "wol-eh".)
*Gracie Mole, the daughter of his current wife Daisy (née Flowers), a smart, good-looking woman with whom he enjoys great mutual attraction.

Friends

*Pandora Braithwaite is the love of Adrian's life. She is beautiful and intelligent, and as teenagers they are happy together. In the later books she shuns Adrian in favour of, by turns, physically and intellectually powerful men, though he remains attached to her. Adrian tends to devote a lot of his diary space to her, describing her current paramour and his flaws, and pining for their lost love. The smart, polyglot and extremely attractive Pandora becomes a rising star in New Labour under Tony Blair, i.e. one of Blair's Babes, until she opposes the Iraq War, as did some real-life Labour MPs.
*Bert Baxter, an old-age pensioner Adrian looks after. Despite the fact that Baxter is filthy, rude, a communist, and has a vicious Alsatian, Adrian becomes very fond of him. Bert died in 1997, at the age of 105, by falling down the stairs, despite having vowed not to die until he had seen the fall of capitalism.
*Nigel Hetherington is Adrian's on-and-off best chum who has a somewhat bohemian lifestyle. He moves to London and comes out as a gay man. In the last novel he is forced to move to his parents' granny flat, having become blind, as Townsend herself did.
*Barry Kent is a skinhead who initially bullied Adrian and later became a "bad influence" upon him in his teen years. At the age of 16 he renounced racism and became a rabid anti-racist. At some point, Adrian discovered that Barry had a natural gift for poetry, which he encouraged him to develop. However, he bitterly regretted this when Barry became not only a successful poet, but author of a hit novel "Dork's Diary" which revolved around a loser called "Aiden Vole" (a tongue-in-cheek reference to the "Adrian Mole" books themselves). A lot of humour comes from the fact that Barry Kent, although seemingly ill-educated and rough-natured, succeeds on natural talent, which Adrian Mole clearly lacks.
*Hamish Mancini is Adrian's American friend and penpal. They first met on Adrian's holiday to Loch Lomond, Scotland. In the second book, Hamish runs away from his home to come live with Adrian briefly. In "The True Confessions of Adrian Mole", he asks Adrian to explain the British English terms in his diary, which means that Hamish somehow got hold of them. However, he sends them back and that apparently is the last time he is mentioned. In "Cappuccino Years", on 1 April 1998 Adrian receives a letter purporting to accept his serial killer comedy script "The White Van" for a 20-episode series on BBC Television. 13 days later he receives a postcard sent from Cape Cod simply reading "April Fool, Nebbish!"
*Sharon Bott/Botts is Adrian's second girlfriend and the mother of his first child. She is introduced in "Growing Pains" as the girl who “will show everything for 50p and a pound of grapes”, but Adrian is disappointed after being set up on a date with her by Nigel. In "True Confessions", Adrian has lost his virginity with Sharon, but it is obvious that neither of them has any other interest in the other than sex. By this time Sharon has started putting on weight, and she is referred to as overweight in the later books. After it is proven Adrian fathered Glenn in "Cappuccino Years", Sharon re-enters Adrian’s life; they maintain a good relationship as parents of Glenn.

Ending

Townsend has announced that "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction" will be the last book of the series due to her poor health. The series is resolved in the following ways:

*Adrian suffers an emotional crisis after the death of Robert Stainforth, his son Glenn's best friend in the Iraq War; he realises that the war, which he had supported passionately, was fought for bogus reasons; and he faces financial ruin, he has only ever had poorly paid employment, such as working as an offal cook in a fashionable London restaurant. He comes to recognise that he has lived in a dream world and is forced to confront reality.
*Adrian's job in the antiquarian bookstore allows him some stability. His employer, the gentle and unbullying Mr. Carlton-Hayes, hints that he wants him to run the shop after he has retired.
*Adrian's financial nadir passes in an unspecified way, and he is able to get on with his life. (It is left to the reader to decide if he declared bankruptcy or came to a long-term arrangement with his creditors or was rescued by the equity in his Rat Wharf flat.)
*Adrian begins a serious relationship (eventually leading to marriage, although the actual wedding is not chronicled) with Daisy Flowers, his secret love of most of the book, and fathers a daughter called Gracie. They enjoy a happy, fulfilling relationship.
*His father, who has become wheelchair-bound, his mother and Animal (his real name), who has assisted them in converting two pigsties into living quarters (one of which Adrian, Daisy and Gracie live in at the end of the book) live together in a consensual "ménage à trois".
*Pandora continues as an MP (albeit a blackballed one), and says that despite their insurmountable differences, she still likes Adrian very much. After all these years, he is the only person she can talk to freely. In her autobiography "Out of the Box", she describes him as her first romantic interest and gives an unflattering, but honest, account of his shortcomings.
*In the last entry, Adrian concludes that keeping a diary is only for unhappy people. Daisy then asks why he is starting one again. Adrian says he wants to start an autobiography but she says that other people will find him uninteresting.

As the diary ends, the whole decades-spanning Mole Saga comes to a ragged but hopeful conclusion.

In an interview on Leicester hospital station Radio Fox on 5th June 2008, Townsend said that she was in fact writing a new Mole book entitled 'The Prostate Years.' Townsend said that the book was likely to be published in Spring 2009. Fact|date=May 2007

List of books featuring Adrian Mole

*"The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾" (1982)
*"The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" (1985)
*"The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole" (1989)
*"" (1993)
*"" (1999)
*"Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction" (2004)

Two overlapping compilations exist. The first two books are repackaged in one volume, and "" includes "The True Confessions" and "The Wilderness Years", as well as the bonus not available separately, "Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians". "Adrian Mole From Minor to Major" (i.e. from being a child to the years of the John Major government) is a compilation of the first three books.

Adrian Mole in other media

The character originated in a "Thirty-Minute Theatre" play on BBC Radio 4 called "The Diary of Nigel Mole, Aged 13¼", broadcast on 2 January 1982, with Nicholas Barnes as Nigel. [cite news | last = Wade | first = David | title = Radio | work = The Times | pages = 8 | date = 1981-12-31] The first name was changed to Adrian in the subsequent book as the original was thought to be too close to that of the satirical character in children's literature Nigel Molesworth (whom Sue Townsend said she had previously not heard of).

The books spawned three TV series. The first "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾" was made by Thames Television for the ITV network and broadcast between 16 September and 21 October 1985. It starred Gian Sammarco as Adrian Mole with Julie Walters playing his mother. The sequel, "The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole" was broadcast between 5 January and 9 February 1987 with Lulu replacing Julie Walters as Adrian's mother. "" was broadcast on BBC One between 2 February and 9 March 2001, starring Stephen Mangan as Adrian Mole, Alison Steadman as Pauline Mole and Helen Baxendale as Pandora Braithwaite.

The character also featured in several radio series, such as "Pirate Radio Four" in 1985.

A stage musical was written by Sue Townsend in 1984 of the first book - "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾: The Play" with music and lyrics by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley. It starred Simon Schatzberger as Adrian Mole and Sheila Steafel as Pauline Mole. It was first performed at Phoenix Arts, Leicester and went to Wyndham's Theatre, London in December 1984.

The first two books were adapted into computer adventure games by Level 9 Computing in the 1980s.

Fortress Entertainment producers Brett Forbes and Patrick Rizzotti and Ruby Films producer Alison Owen are planning a feature film entitled "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole"Fact|date=May 2007.

A less well-known chapter of Adrian's life was chronicled in a weekly column called [http://www.mediafire.com/?4yn0cetx026 "Diary of a Provincial Man"] , which ran in "The Guardian", which ran from December 1999 [http://books.guardian.co.uk/adrianmole/article/0,,124422,00.html] to November 2001 [http://books.guardian.co.uk/adrianmole/0,,124404,00.html] . Set contemporaneously, as all the diaries are, it fills in two of the gap years between "" and "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction". Adrian spends this period living on a crime-ridden council estate with his sons, has an on-off romance with a woman named Pamela Pigg, and temporarily works in a lay-by trailer cafe. He befriends yet another pensioner who subsequently dies, and has a brief infatuation with his male therapist (which he insists is wholly spiritual, not homosexual). The series includes comment on the petrol crisis of 2000, the 9/11 attacks and the War on Terrorism. Adrian's illegitimate half-brother Brett Mole, born on 5 August 1982, is reintroduced as a 19 year-old; he is an athletic, popular, confident, promiscuous, super-intelligent Oxford undergraduate, already a published poet and TV documentarian - in short, the person Adrian always wanted to be. Brett's mediocre older sibling soon comes to regard him with envious loathing.

Although the period on a sink council estate is referred to briefly in "The Cappuccino Years", the events of "Diary of a Provincial Man" are perhaps not strictly canonical. For example, Adrian later states that he can count the women he has had carnal knowledge of "on the fingers of one hand". Those women would be: Sharon Bott, Bianca Dartington, JoJo Mole, Marigold and Daisy Flowers. Inserting Pamela Pigg into this list makes six - more than the fingers of one hand, unless Adrian is polydactyl. The third wedding of Adrian's parents is described, but no mention is made of Ivan Braithwaite dying. Also, Adrian's ex-wife JoJo e-mails him from Nigeria and names her new husband as one Colonel Ephat Mapfumo. In "The Cappuccino Years", her husband's name is Wole.

Chronological inconsistencies

There are three major temporal contradictions running through the life of Adrian Mole. The first regards his own birth year, usually understood to be 1967 but sometimes apparently 1968.

The original novel, "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾," has his 14th birthday as April 2, four months before the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981, placing his birth on Sue Townsend's 21st birthday, April 2 1967. This is confirmed in the second novel, "Growing Pains", which has Adrian's 16th birthday 2 months before the general election of June 9, 1983. The collection "From Minor to Major", stated to chronicle the first 10 years of his diaries, ends on January 1, 1991: thus confirming the start of the first book as January 1, 1981 and Adrian's year of birth as 1967. Howevever, the intermediate book "True Confessions" begins at Christmas 1984, when Adrian states he is 16 years and 8 months old - which would mean he was born in 1968, not 67. In a following chapter set in June 1988, his age is 20 years, 2 months, also consistent with a 1968 birth. "The Wilderness Years", immediately following "From Minor to Major", has Adrian's 24th birthday in 1991 - so it seems that he was, after all, born in 1967. The next novel, "The Cappuccino Years", is consistent with this, beginning at the 1997 general election and giving Adrian's age as 30. Likewise, in the weekly newspaper serial "Diary of a Provincial Man", Adrian has his 33rd birthday in the year 2000. The final novel, "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction", begins in late 2002 and makes Adrian only 34. In fact, on his birthday in 2003, he pointedly bemoans his turning 35 as the beginning of middle age so, somehow, he was once again born in 1968.

The second, more glaring error is the age of Adrian's first child, Glenn Bott-Mole. According to the final chapter of "From Minor to Major", Glenn's mother, Sharon Bott, was three months pregnant with him in July 1989. The baby can therefore be assumed to be born around January 1990. On Christmas Eve 1990 Adrian meets Glenn for the first time, describing him as "a strange-looking moon-headed toddler." The boy is not genetically confirmed as Adrian's son until "The Cappuccino Years", set in 1997, yet he is now 12 years old, when consistency would require him to be only seven. Those five years of premature ageing would require that Adrian's relationship with Sharon be retconned back four years to 1984. This would make Adrian and Sharon 17 when they conceived Glenn (they were in the same year at school, so are presumed to be the same age). Not only that, but Glenn's 13th birthday falls in April of 1998, not January. The final word comes from "The Weapons of Mass Destruction", where Glenn is 17 and has just joined the Army in 2002. This concurs with his age in the previous book — although his father's age has been quietly reduced by a year.

The third confusion lies over the age of Adrian's sister Rosie. In "The Growing Pains", she is born on 11 November 1982. However, by the start of the "Cappuccino Years" (May 1997), it is implied that she is 15 years old and about to take her GCSEs and leave school. If her birthdate in the "Growing Pains" is correct, she should be only 14 years old and in Year 9 in May 1997, and should take her GCSEs and leave school in summer 1999. Later in the "Cappuccino Years", in October 1997, Adrian mentions that Rosie is still at school (as she should be, going by her birthdate in the "Growing Pains").

There are other, more minor continuity errors in the books. For example, in "Growing Pains" the tyrannical headmaster of Adrian's school, "Pop-Eye] " Scruton, retires on the grounds of ill health. In "True Confessions", he is once again Adrian's headmaster. In "Growing Pains", Barry Kent's mother's name is Ida, but in "The Cappucino Years" she is known as Edna.

References

External links

* [http://www.adrianmole.com Official website]
* In-depth character biography at [http://adrianmole.wikia.com/wiki/Adrian_Mole Adrian Mole Wikia]
* [http://www.ethesis.net/townsend/townsend_inhoud.htm A comprehensive study of the non-dramatic work of Sue Townsend]
*imdb title|id=0088604|title=The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾
*imdb title|id=0271275|title=Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years
*imdb title|id=0780604|title=The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (In Development)
* [http://www.mediafire.com/?4yn0cetx026 "ADRIAN MOLE: DIARY OF A PROVINCIAL MAN"] download from [http://www.mediafire.com/ MediaFire]