The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

First published: 1982

Subjects: Coming-of-age, family, and social issues

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Domestic realism and social realism

Time of work: 1981-1982

Recommended Ages: 13-15

Locale: The English Midlands

Principal Characters:

• Adrian Mole, a sensitive and naïve teenager who records the trials of adolescence in his diary
• George Mole, and
• Pauline Mole, his parents
• Pandora, his girlfriend
• Bert Baxter, an old-age pensioner
• Nigel, Adrian’s friend
• Barry Kent, a bully
• Grandma Mole, Adrian’s grandmother
• Mr. Lucas, a neighbor

Form and Content

Sue Townsend’s The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is a first-person account of the day-to-day events in the life of a young boy in Midlands England in the early 1980’s. Because of the diary style of narration, all the characters and events are presented through the eyes of Adrian Mole. Nevertheless, the reader comes to know intimately not only Adrian but also the other characters in his family and his school. Adrian’s diary is understated, ironic, and humorous in tone. He is a naïve, even a comic, character, yet his dilemmas are so human and universal that the reader sympathizes with him and grows to love him.

Adrian’s diary opens on New Year’s Day of his thirteenth year. From the opening lines, it is clear that he is a naïve and self-involved young adolescent. He has spots on his chin, and this adolescent preoccupation is of more importance to him than his mother’s affair with their neighbor, Mr. Lucas. Adrian blindly accepts Mr. Lucas’ interest in his mother as neighborly kindness and concern, and he reports the fights between his mother and father with little understanding.

Adrian decides to become an intellectual, and he submits some poems to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). At school, he becomes interested in a new girl, Pandora. He joins the Good Samaritans, a school community service group, and is assigned to help Bert Baxter, an old-age pensioner.

Adrian’s world grows more miserable, in his view, when his mother gets a job. This change in his family makes him worry: Who will prepare his meals and do the housework? Meanwhile, Pandora is dating Adrian’s friend Nigel, and Adrian is being bullied by Barry Kent, who demands protection money from Adrian. When his parents announce their intention to divorce, Adrian at last grows suspicious of his mother’s feelings toward Mr. Lucas.

As the changes in his life continue, Adrian’s problems and responsibilities take on more adult dimensions. When his mother leaves home to live with Mr. Lucas, Adrian and his father become a single-parent family. Adrian’s father begins to date a woman, and this time Adrian has no illusions about the nature of their relationship. Adrian also takes on more responsibility for Bert Baxter. His father is short of money, and their electricity is shut off. The situation grows even worse when Adrian’s father loses his job.

Adrian begins to look to the outside world as he discovers himself. At school, he rebels by wearing forbidden red socks and admiring a liberal teacher. Pandora and he become involved in a protest at school, and Adrian goes to her home and meets her parents, whom he admires. He becomes critical of his parents’ narrow, working-class life.

As the diary continues, Pandora and Adrian begin to date. Bert Baxter has a stroke and moves to an old age home. Adrian reports on school trips and his sexual explorations with Pandora. Life becomes a bit more stable. His mother returns, and his parents reconcile. Bert becomes engaged to Queenie, another resident of the home. Adrian’s father finds a job.

Much has happened in one year. Adrian has fallen in love, lived with only one parent, gone “intellectual,” and grown in confidence and maturity. The volume ends with Adrian celebrating his fifteenth birthday, on the verge of new possibilities.

Critical Context

While The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ falls within the genre of young adult coming-of-age novels, its specific setting in Thatcher’s England and the working-class status of Adrian’s family place it within the political context of Sue Townsend’s adult fiction. She has written a number of plays and novels that are humorous social commentaries focusing on England’s lower classes. It was the enormous success of her Adrian Mole diaries, however, that brought her to the attention of the public. By the mid-1990’s, the novel had sold more than five million copies in England and had been translated into twenty-two languages.

Some critics in the United States have complained that the distinctly British flavor of Townsend’s humor, as well as some specifics of vocabulary and political context, limit the universality of her themes when translated to an American audience. Others have countered that Adrian’s Britishisms, rooted in his place and his class, are grasped and appreciated even by young adults and that they add to the humor of the situations.

The diary format of the novel emphasizes the individuality of Adrian Mole’s singular point of view. The social realism of the setting and the author’s subtle wit contribute to the work’s literary merit. The universality of the adolescent themes is the basis for the enormous popularity of the novel.