- Dishonesty Is The Second-Best Policy and Other Rules to Live By” by David Mitchell
- “Michael Palin In Venezuela” by Michael Palin
- “Happiness: Lessons From A New Science” by Richard Layard
- “The People on Platform 5” by Clare Pooley
- “Encyclopaedia of Narrow Gauge Railways of Great Britain and Ireland” by Thomas Middlemiss
- “Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System” by Martin Sixsmith
- “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged Thirteen and Three-Quarters” by Sue Townsend
Started: 11th February 2026
Finished: 12th February 2026
4/5 stars
This is a perennial favourite, a book that’s been with me for over forty years. I first read it when I was about ten years old, and have re-read it so often since that I know huge chunks of it off by heart. I always get something out of it every time I visit it. I found a vintage paperback version in a secondhand bookshop that has the front cover I fondly remember, so I bought it and ploughed through it once again.
It was, as ever, an absolute pleasure. The book works on a couple of levels, firstly as a pitch-perfect diary of a realistic and credible teenage boy, and secondly as a very culturally-relevant reflection of British society at a time of upheaval, shortly after Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. Essentially, it’s a political comedy – Sue Townsend was well-known for being a left-wing commentator of some skill and talent.
The first time I read it, I completely missed the biggest joke of the book, which is Adrian missing some extremely obvious things, and misunderstanding so much of what’s going on around him. In particular, he’s just about the last to notice his mother having an affair with Mr. Lucas. I think this was a book that a lot of kids read back in the day, because people didn’t understand that it’s actually not a childrens’ or YA book – it’s aimed very squarely at adults, and you’ll need a certain level of maturity to properly understand it. That said, I could relate to Adrian then, and I still can now, seeing a lot of myself in him. He’s rather clueless and naive in lots of ways, but he’s also idealistic and dreams of better things as he has to navigate chaos that isn’t of his own making. He’s quite perceptive and observant at times, while catastrophically unaware in others, making for a really hilarious diary. He can be a bit selfish and nasty at times, but generally Townsend makes us warm to him as one of the most authentic and realistic teenagers ever seen in fiction.
I reviewed this on Goodreads about nine years ago when I last read it, and found some reviews from people who utterly missed the point, sometimes even more spectacularly than I did, especially a young American who gave it one star and said we should read Anne Frank’s diary instead! Oh dear – Mole and Frank are two very different things indeed. For fairly obvious reasons, a lot of Mole’s life is exaggerated and overdone for comic effect, but somehow it all still works very well. But yes – a comic novel and the real diary of a Holocaust victim can’t be even remotely compared to each other, and it seemed rather clueless to see that comparison being made. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to claim Adrian Mole was real!
If you haven’t read it, I’d strongly recommend both this and the second Mole book (The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole) but I don’t like the later books anywhere near as much. It felt to me like Sue Townsend grew to hate Adrian and inflicted excessive misery on him as he got older, making him a rather pathetic and tragic adult, but as a teenager, he’s still brilliant, relevant and endearing as ever.
