Adrian Mole
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Adrian Albert Mole (born April 2, 1967) is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by Sue Townsend. The author once famously spotted the future Prime Minister John Major (a minor cabinet minister at the time) in a photograph and said that Adrian would grow up to become just like him. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 single play in 1982. All of the books in the series are written in the first person in the form of a diary.
Themes
The books contain two main themes. The first are personal to Adrian: they revolve around his desires and ambitions in life (to marry Pandora, become a published writer of poetry and novels, attain financial security), and his complete failure to achieve them. In many ways, the books are extremely accurate satires of human pretentions (and teenage pretentions in particular in the early books).The second theme is to hold a mirror up to the social and polical situation in Britain, with particular reference to left-wing politics in the 1980s for the first three books. For example, Adrian's parents got divorced at a time when that was comparatively rare in Britain. His mother became feminist and briefly joined the Greenham Common campaigners. Pandora and her parents were part of an intellectualised and left-wing middle-class that attempted to embrace the working class, and which was only just becoming apparent at the time.
All of this was made absurd, and therefore humorous, because it was set in the context of a very ordinary working-class household in the middle of Britain (quite literally middle Britain).
The two most recent books are slighly different from the first three "classic" books, because they show Adrian as an adult in a different environment. They are more focussed on political satire, mainly examining New Labour, and in particular its shortcomings with regard to the Iraq war.
Biography
Adrian Albert Mole is the son of George and Pauline Mole. He was born on 2nd April, 1967. They share their house in Leicester (they later move to Ashby-de-la-Zouch) with their dog, simply referred to as "the dog", and later with Adrian's sister, Rosie. Adrian's grandmother, Edna May Mole (referred to simply as Grandma), is also prominent in many of his diary entries.Family
Adrian's parents Pauline and George Mole are somewhat dysfunctional. Both are working class characters with limited scope who drink and smoke a lot. They are both perpetually unemployed. He has a sister called Rosie Mole who is very rebellious and "street", in total contrast to Adrian. His mother later divorces George for a Martin Muffet.In the course of his life, Adrian fathers three children.
- Glenn Bott, son of Sharon Bott, once a voluptuous school friend Adrian fancied, but who developed into an intellectually challenged woman.
- William Wole, né Mole, the son of his first wife JoJo, from Nigeria. In the most recent book Glenn is fighting in the Iraq war and William has gone back to Nigeria to live with his mother, whom Adrian divorced due to his intolerance of her 'exhibitionist' sneezing and claims of her inability to cook (although she is said to cook Nigerian food superbly), and also the fact that she was taller than him. He has also changed his name Mole to Wole to make it sound more African. (When he tells Adrian about this, he thinks that he changed his first name, so he concludes his son is going to tire soon of his new name, Wole Mole.)
- Gracie Mole, the daughter of his current partner Daisy Flowers, a smart, good-looking woman with whom he enjoys great mutual attraction.
Friends
- Pandora Braithwaite is the love of Adrian's life and her parents are named Ivan and Tania. She is beautiful and intelligent, and in the first books 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, whomever she is currently dating (and his various faults and flaws), and pining for their lost love. The smart, polyglot and extremely attractive Pandora becomes a rising star in New Labour under Tony Blair, but when she opposes the Iraq War, it becomes her political downfall.
- 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 later marries another pensioner named Queenie.
- Nigel Hetherington is Adrian's on-and-off best chum who has a somewhat bohemian lifestyle. He is homosexual and becomes blind in the last novel, at least partly reflecting Townsend's own blindness.
- Barry Kent is a skinhead who constantly bullied Adrian in his teen years. In the course of the story, he was fleshed out to be rabidly anti-racist and became at first a successful poet in The Cappuccino Years and then author of hit novel Dork's Diary revolving around a loser called Aidan Vole, a probable 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 purely on his talent, talent which Adrian Mole clearly lacks.
Ending
Townsend has announced that Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction will be the last book of the series. The Adrian Mole universe ends in the following way:
- Adrian emotionally melts down after the death of Robert Stainforth (Glenn's best friend) in the Iraq War, realizing that the war (which he had supported passionately) was led for bogus reasons, and facing financial ruin. He realizes that he has lived in a dream world and faces the reality.
- After narrowly escaping bankruptcy, Adrian has a steady job in a bookstore run by Mr. Carlton-Hayes, probably the first employer to make Adrian work efficiently. Although he remains strapped for cash, the job is well-paid enough so that Adrian can pay his debts and still make an honest living. Carlton-Hayes also strongly hints that he wants him to run the shop after he has retired.
- Adrian begins a serious relationship (marriage is hinted at, but not confirmed) 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 her boyfriend Animal (his real name) live together in a consensual menage a trois.
- Pandora continues working as a (albeit blackballed) politician, 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 biography Out of the Box, she describes him as her first romantic interest and gives him an unflattering, but honest account on his shortcomings.
- In the last entry, Adrian concludes that keeping a diary is only for unhappy people. As the diary ends, the whole decades-spanning Mole Saga comes to an imperfect, but optimistic conclusion.
List of books featuring Adrian Mole
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾
- The Growing Pains of Adrian Albert Mole
- The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole
- Adrian Mole and the Small Amphibians
- Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Adrian Mole From Minor to Major
Adrian Mole in other media
- The books spawned several TV series, most recently "Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years" 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.
- A play was written by Sue Townsend of the first book - 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾'. The play included songs by Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley.
- The first two books were also adapted into computer adventure games by Level 9 in the 1980s.
- Fortress Entertainment producers Brett Forbes and Patrick Rizzotti and Ruby Films producer Alison Owen have partnered to produce the feature film entitled The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole based on the first books in the series.
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