posted on 04 Aug 2020

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

Back in 1985 when this was first published, it was a sensation shifting the best part of two million copies in no time. It was also one of those books that was a bit of a puzzle for the critics – was this book aimed at teenagers or adults? And, did it matter? The readers obviously didn’t care and its serialisation on the radio merely confirmed its status as an instant comedy classic. But, of course, like all the best comedy it resonated because of the potential dark undertow that was swimming about just below the surface.

Adrian is one of the great comic creations and so well realised that his diary would sustain his fans over eight volumes and see our hero grow from boy to man and parent. The last instalment in 2009 – ruefully entitle ‘The Prostrate Years’ – was Townsend last in the series before her death in 2014.

Your enjoyment of The Secret Diary will inevitably hinge on how you take to Adrian. In a sense he’s an everyman (or everyteen) and the humour comes from the way the reader can, at one and the same time, identify with his thoughts and behaviour but also see him as by turns absurd, prudish, self-obsessed, bemused by relationships and sex and stuck in a family that’s dysfunctional and chaotic. Adrian’s teenage angst isn’t built on comic-book stroppiness but a sniffy, pompous self-righteousness that sees him constantly disappointed by the world and everyone around him.

It’s also important to us that Adrian wants to be a better person that he probably is. He wants to be an ‘intellectual’ but actually can’t really apply himself to the heavyweight texts he aspires to read. He also has a sense of community but this too becomes a new cross for Adrian to carry – he befriends the cantankerous pensioner, Bert Baxter who clearly needs his help but at the same time manipulates and exploits Adrian’s good nature.

Above all else, Adrian wants to woo and win Pandora, the love of his life, but he’s confronted by the problem of other boys who also circle around her. There’s a looming certainty that even if he wins the battle for her affections, he’s bound to mess up the relationship somewhere not very far along the path.  And the road to romance isn’t helped by the fact that he’s also fighting a private war against his own skin, battling pimples that he fears disfigure his face.

And crucially, Adrian has a delightful streak of self-delusion and self-interest. Like so many teenagers, what is happening around him, especially in the adult world, gets filtered through his own special prism and diffracted into delightful misunderstandings and, at times, bizarre interpretations of events.

The diary takes us through about 18 months of Adrian’s life as he passes his 14th and 15th birthdays and Townsend does a really skilful job of developing his character over that time. Adrian isn’t just a static cipher for teenage anxiety, he’s a real person and his world is tangible too. I especially like Adrian’s view of his mother who is going through her own feminist epiphany and who is seeking liberation through an affair with next door neighbour. Some of the richest comedy comes out of Adrian’s attempts to rationalise what’s happening to his mother and father – something that Townsend will go on to develop even more in the subsequent diaries.

I’ve said elsewhere in reviews on this site that I’m not a great fan of ‘comic’ books but The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole,  Aged 13¾ is, like Wodehouse, serious comic writing – comedy that comes from character development rather than lazy stereotypes.

This is pretty much perfect reading if you’re looking for something to distract you from the hellishness of the real world.

 

Terry Potter

August 2020