The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole by S Townsend

Summary for teachers

First published in 1982 and a hugely successful book - first of several in

the fictional 'life' of the writer, Adrian Mole.

The form is adhered to more conventionally than in the Grossmith's

'Nobody' and Townsend replicates a conventional diary form, with
references to Bank Holidays and various traditional Christian holidays.
The entries are shorter and less conventional than 'Nobody', which was,
remember, rewritten for publication as a novel, having been originally
published in episodic form for a magazine. Townsend's intention from
the outset is to create a published 'novel', although it is not strictly true
that a journal fits the genre of the novel form at all. This may cause you
some problems if the examiners ask you to write about chosen form, or
author intention. I think she is deliberately trying to copy a generic style
with a particular satirical intention - to 'send up' various contemporary
issues of the Thatcher years. What comes out at the end is an easily
readable work of fiction - intimate and poignant at times and with a
sharp humorous content, but more of that later.

The writer of the diary (and remember that we have two 'writers' here -
Adrian and Townsend) is fictional - an adolescent boy of 13 who
decides to keep a diary (a Christmas present ) as his New Year's
resolution. The diary spans a period of 15 months, from January 1st
1982 to April 3rd 1983. The fact that it is a 'Secret Diary' indicates a
typically adolescent attitude and makes the work immediately accessible
to the reader, because ironically, of course it is not 'Secret' at all. The
reader is able to 'peek' into fifteen months of an adolescent boy's life.

The entries are very irregular and most are quite short, which is realistic.
They are also extremely self centred and naive - again sustaining the
realism and audience appeal. The narrator is, of course, flawed, as we
would expect from the generic form. Like Pooter, Adrian Mole sees only
what he wants to see and ignores things which are obvious to the
reader, thus intensifying the dramatic irony which is an inherent part of
this type of writing.

It is not feasible to split the narrative into 'chapters' as we have done

with 'Nobody', because of the fragmentary nature of the entries, so I
have commented on sections of time, instead.

Jan1st - 14th
The focus from the beginning of the narrative is domestic. Adrian's world
revolves around home and school, naturally enough. What is apparent
from the outset (to the reader, if not to the 'author') is discord between
Arian's parents. Note how he calls them 'mother' and 'father', rather than
the more familiar 'Mum' or 'Dad'. Also apparent is Adrian's discontent - a
familiar trait of the teenage years and one which Townsend 'milks' quite
successfully. Immediately the reader has an identifiable theme which is
realistic and contemporary. The ignorance of the narrator (NB you might
have to find a better word than 'narrator' for Adrian, because this isn't
really a 'story') intensifies the irony of the domestic situation. It is
obvious that the father and mother are having serious domestic
difficulties, but Adrian is unaware of them and much more concerned
with his spots and his envy of the odious Nigel, who has none. Obvious
comparisons here with Pooter, in 'Nobody'.

Note that Adrian criticises both his parents and seems very hostile and
dismissive of them, especially his mother who is 'not like the mothers on
television'. An interesting attitude/value here is, of course, the topical
issue of feminism, which Townsend satirises throughout the book. Note
for example how the next door neighbour's wife is busy concreting the
driveway and also how Townsend implies that this 'unfeminine'
behaviour is one of the reasons the marriage breaks up.

Various characters are introduced in the opening section of the book,

most notably the adult quartet and the formidable Grandmother
(Adrian's father's mother) and Adrian's friends. Nigel, the spotless
'weekend punk' (another topical reference which Townsend uses to
satirical advantage) and the lovely Pandora, who prefers to be called
'Box' (note the euphemism and the 'in joke' which is a reference to the
female sexual organ). Adrian, the 'intellectual' doesn't understand the
reference at all, either the obvious mythological one or the slang! You
might like to think about the way Townsend creates the character of
Adrian from the outset. He is deliberately made to be a 'wimp' -
pretentious - self-centred and ridiculously naive. Obvious comparisons
are possible between Pooter and Adrian, in terms of each character's
ignorance of what is going on all around him, and one of the key
questions is exactly how a reader feels about each character. Much can
be forgiven in the case of Adrian because of his youth. Readers expect
teenagers to be selfish (teenage readers will empathise much more
readily than adults, probably) and the events that happen to Adrian are
very recognisable, too. Townsend cleverly uses contemporary issues in
her work, the divorce of Adrian's parents, for example, and his reactions
to it are central to the book. What you have to think about is whether or
not you sympathise with him, or feel irritated at his utter selfishness
about what is a very harrowing time for the adults.

Another 'character' introduced in this first section is the hapless dog,

who seems to spend most of its time being neglected, ignored or
mistreated. The dog is a 'must-have' accessory for the nuclear family of
the early eighties.

Jan 15th - Feb 3rd

Adrian falls in love with Pandora but note how immature he is. Again,
though, this is consistent with the choice of age and sex of the central
character and Adrian's suffering is very realistically portrayed. The
progress (or lack of progress) of the love affair is one of the cohesive
strands of the novel and provides a good deal of comic relief.

In this section Adrian joins the 'Good Samaritans' - a school based

community service group - again a topical reference by Townsend - and
makes his first visits to his allocated old-age pensioner, Bert Baxter.
Townsend makes the character of Bert quite obnoxious, though. he is
not a stereotypically 'nice' old man. On the contrary, he is 'disgusting'
according to Adrian and he has a dog, too. The sequences about the
first visits to Bert are very funny, with the beetroot stains on the bed and
Adrian's horrified references to Bert as a 'filthy commie'.

Adrian's mother goes out to work and he refers to himself as a 'latch-key

kid' (this was a hot topic in the early eighties, as it was felt to be harmful
to children to be 'neglected' by working mothers)

The Lucases are the 'first down our road' to get a divorce. This is quite
an interesting issue, as divorce statistics did rise quite dramatically at
this time. Note the references, too, to Nigel and his safety pins - this was
the era of the Sex Pistols and the start of body piercing. Nigel's safety
pin in the ear is used to good comic effect, though.
What emerges once more is Adrian's preoccupation with his own trivial
concerns at the expense of real understanding about what is going on
with the Lucases next door and his own parents. We expect the narrator
to be egocentric in this genre, of course, so it is not untypical. Note also
how Townsend replicates the pattern of adolescent speech and register
and how Adrian uses a combination of quite formal standard English
and contemporary slang.

Feb3rd - March 17th

Note ref's to mother not doing 'proper housework' and Adrian's attitude
towards his father smoking. This was the beginning of the anti-smoking
lobby which over the last couple of decades of the 20th century pretty
well put paid to smoking in public places. Also note the other's reading
matter. Germaine Greer was (and still is) a leading feminist writer. The
Female Eunuch is one of her seminal texts, but according to Adrian it is
full of 'dirty words'. Interesting this - it's difficult to tell whether Townsend
is creating a typical prude in Adrian, or having a swipe at the male
opinion of a feminist text that used fairly basic language to describe
female parts. Maybe a bit of both. The 'overalls' that Adrian's mother
wears is also a swipe at the 'sexless' clothing many women opted to
wear to express their desire not to stereotyped as sex objects. Note the
comment about Nigel's mother who buys a 'new pair of high heels every
week'. The dyeing of the hair and the 'dangly earrings', too are all
characteristic of the 'new woman'. Adrian's Grandmother, of course,
makes 'real' custard and 'proper' dinners. If you want to focus on this
issue in an answer, then you need to think about Adrian's attitudes and
how they have been shaped by his upbringing. He would have been
born in the late 60's and it is likely that both his parents would have
been quite conventional - they would have had a 'traditional' attitude to
male & female roles and Adrian would have absorbed it, too. He does
not seem to take a very positive view, for example, of his mother's
desire to go out to work and it is obvious that he has not thought about
his mother as anything other than the person who does the cooking and
the housework. In short, you could probably make a good case for
Adrian being stereotypically 'male' in terms of how he views female
roles.

Another thing that is of interest in the narrative is the consistent

reference to fast food and convenience food. Again this was innovative
at the time the book was written. Now it has become so usual that a
modern reader may not even realise the significance of the food
revolution that came with 'boil-in-the-bag' meals and Vesta curries
(rather revolting TVP chunks that were reconstituted with water into a
sort of yellowish glop tasting vaguely of curry powder. I think raisins
were involved, too). When Mrs Mole becomes liberated, the standard of
cooking does seem to deteriorate quite remarkably, but at the time, it
has to be said, that sort of quick-fix food was really quite a dramatic
invention, so she would see it as a benefit, rather than a handicap.
Adrian and his father think otherwise. Note also the references to
'cheese with grape pips' and 'black forest cake' both items of 'new'
continental/sophisticated food, characteristic of households with
pretensions to social status. Compare it with Pooter's champagne &
lobster mayonnaise and you get the idea.

Social aspirations and snobbery figure in the narrative, too. Pandora

(consider the name) has a 'little fat horse' and lives in a 'posh' part of
town, where the families take the broadsheet newspapers and Punch
magazine. Note, too Adrian's ignorance when he criticises the 'spelling
mistakes' in The Guardian' (an in-joke for readers of this book who read
the paper - known for its spelling errors). Pandora is neatly counter
pointed by Barry Kent, the stereotypical school bully. This theme is not
specifically of the time, because bullying was and is endemic in most
schools, but it serves to mark a particular contrast between social
classes here and gives Townsend a means of generating humour (see
the comments about Barry on p39).

The section from march 8th -17th raises some interesting references to
women's assertiveness groups and Mrs Mole's rebellion against
domestic slavery when she tells the family that 'the worm has turned'
and shares out the housework. Read over the section about the jobs
Adrian has to do around the house (p 43) and ask yourself who would
have done them every day without any complaint at all for years?

The announcement of the divorce and Mr Mole playing his Jim Reeves
records in the bedroom is both farcical and pathetic. Adrian's poem
about Blossom the horse is dreadful (all his poems are dreadful - you'll
need to say why if you get one of them in an extract) and again the
reader is torn between exasperation and sympathy for the narrator at
the way the events are reported. You could make the point that
Townsend is very consistent in the way she replicates the extreme self-
centredness of adolescence even if you feel, like Adrian's parents, that
the one who doesn't get custody of him is the lucky one.

One of the more positive aspects of the narrative is the developing

relationship between Adrian and Bert Baxter, who becomes a substitute
Grandfather. Have you noticed how short of strong male role models
Adrian is? Both he and his father seem to be terrorised by formidable
women in the characters of Grandma, Mrs Mole and Pandora. Is Ms
Townsend making a subtle point here, do you think? Bert Baxter
remains quite independent, if a bit unsavoury, but even he succumbs to
the beautiful Queenie in the end, so could we say that the Secret Diary
is really a bit of subversive feminist polemic? Shall we burn our bra's
and say 'Long Live the Feminist Revolution, or is Townsend doing the
opposite and satirising feminism as rather a destructive movement
which was responsible for destroying traditionally held beliefs and
values, not to mention causing the break up of the institution of
marriage?

March 18th - May 21st

Adrian becomes a 'single parent family' after Mrs Mole and Mr Lucas go
away together to Sheffield. Note the sharp humour of the fight in the
garden, which Adrian calls a 'civilised meeting'. The 'other woman'
introduced - Doreen Slater - and her odious toddler, Maxwell. Again, the
reader never really finds out whether Mr Mole knew Doreen before his
wife left him, but that is typical of the genre and it adds spice to the sub-
plot of infidelity and divorce.

The section about the visit to Nigel's house shows the Thatcherite
obsession with materialism and consumerism. Nigel has a 'modern'
house full of very expensive possessions. Adrian's envy is extreme and
his loathing of his own situation obvious. Described with sharp humour,
this is nevertheless quite a serious topic. Values did change very much
in the 80's and Nigel's family embodies the aspirations of the time.
Adrian thinks his father should be 'ashamed of our antiques' and doesn't
understand why his father should 'boast about our hundred-year-old
furniture.'

Note also the ignorance Adrian displays about Christianity - again one of
the casualties of the latter part of the 20th century, although his
comments about Houdini having given Jesus the idea about how to
'escape from the cave' is funny. Another topical reference is made to the
Monty Python film 'Life of Brian' which was a very funny parody of the
Christian story. Adrian describes it as 'dead daring' which it was at the
time it was released. Christian groups staged protests outside cinemas
in some places.

Life without Mrs Mole is bleak and the pair are rescued by the
intervention of Grandma, who pays off the overdue electricity bill and
takes Adrian and his father to live with her for a time. Again, we have a
very strong female character in Grandmother, someone who is very
capable and independent. A point to think about here - she is not of the
'liberated' generation, but she is more capable than Mrs Mole of
organising her life exactly the way she wants it to be. Note how she is
the one who sorts out Barry Kent (and his father) after Mr Mole's
intervention only succeeds in getting his son 'duffed up' at school. It
takes her 'one hour and seven minutes' to get Adrian's 'protection
money' back.

May 22nd - July 31st

Adrian paints his bedroom black and burns joss-sticks (incense) which
makes his father sure he is 'messing with drugs'. Quite a typical
response from a parent and also quite a usual pattern of behaviour for a
teenage boy. Note, too the fact that Adrian's bedroom is still decorated
with a Noddy frieze. (Poor Noddy and his sidekick Big Ears became
politically incorrect at about this time. He's been replaced by much more
'butch' children's characters like Bob the Builder)

Adrian meets Doreen Slater, who is 'as thin as a stick insect' with 'no
bust and no bum'. Adrian thinks she would be 'quite nice if she were a
bit fatter'. You have to make the obvious point here about the body
image thing - 'thin is sexy' was becoming the norm at about this time.
Doreen's relationship with Adrian is very different to that with his mother,
note how she tells Adrian about his father's 'temporary impotence' and
how shocked this makes Adrian.

A lengthy diversion here about the 'red sock protest' at school. It may
seem to be a little incredible to a modern reader, but the fuss over
uniform regulations is quite realistic. Many schools did have
exceptionally strict dress codes and handed out suspensions for anyone
who did not conform. Pandora's support of the socks with her 'sock
protest' is obviously played for comic effect by Townsend, especially
when the whole thing turns into a farce and all the protesters are
suspended for a week, but one of the interesting things is the sharp
satire in the description of the protest meeting at Pandora's house. Her
parents are Tania and Ivan - they are 'members of the Labour Party' and
Townsend creates a couple of very stereotypical 'progressive parents'
(note the invitation to Adrian to call both by their first names). Adrian, of
course, is the usual bumbling fool, but one of the benefits of his 'protest'
is that Pandora notices him and 'tells Claire Neilson, who told Nigel, who
told me(Adrian)' with the result that 'Pandora and I are in love!' This
provides a strong story line for the remainder of the diary.

Developments in the Bert Baxter story continue, with Bert's admission to

hospital with pneumonia. If you want to comment on social issues here,
then you could think about the way that Townsend tackles the problems
of elderly people who live alone. A bit of history - the population of
elderly people has increased very significantly over the last couple of
decades, partly because we live longer now, so dealing with the elderly
has steadily become a major social problem. Read over the section
where Adrian and Pandora go to Bert's house to look for the addresses
of his children and you'll see how fragmented family life has become.
Bert has not seen or spoken to his family for years and this
disintegration of traditional family life is not new or uncommon. Note too
how poignantly Townsend reveals Bert's past, with the discovery of the
'brown and cream postcards' signed by the anonymous 'Lola' (a wartime
French sweetheart?) As usual, though, the sentimentality is sacrificed
for satire, when Pandora & Adrian kiss, but not in the 'French' way and
Bert asks Adrian whether or not he has 'had his leg over yet' (a
euphemism for intercourse)

Adrian's illness (tonsillitis) leads to a visit by the truant officer - again

Adrian is a hapless victim and then the 'brown-skinned family' (note the
careful political correctness of the description of the Singhs) move into
the Lucas house. Townsend predictably introduces another topical issue
here, with various reactions. Mr Mole describes it as 'the beginning of
the end of our street' , Pandora's opinion is that Adrian's father is a
'possible racist' (he is) and then we have the surprising revelation that
Bert Baxter speaks 'fluent Hindi'. It soon becomes apparent that the
Singh family is probably the most patriotic one in the street. At the Royal
Wedding street party, for example, only Mr Singh knows all the words to
'Land of Hope & Glory' and he is the one who makes 'a speech about
how great is was to be British'. Surprisingly, the character who would be
expected to be most prejudiced about the Asian family turns out to be
the one who is most supportive of them and makes friends very quickly.
In fact Bert becomes a temporary lodger with the Singhs while he is
convalescing and waiting to see where he will live.

The Royal Wedding section is interesting. You probably don't need to be

reminded of how significant the occasion was at the time (or what
happened after all the fuss was over) but reading a report of it through
the eyes of a teenager gives a different viewpoint altogether. 'Lady
Diana melted my heart in her dirty white dress' and 'helped an old man
up the aisle' (references to the wedding gown that genuinely DID look
'dirty' and Earl Spencer who was an 'old man' and not very steady on his
feet as he walked up the aisle) certainly reveal a different interpretation
to those which were broadcast on TV and printed in the newspapers at
the time. It might be worthwhile to note here that Townsend is not a
Royalist and a later book of hers is a satire on the Royal Family living in
a council house, so you could perhaps suggest that this part of the diary
is deliberately intended to be anti-Royalist. Note how Dame Kiri te
Kanawa, the New Zealand soprano who sang at the wedding ('that Kiwi
woman' who has 'certainly got a good pair of lungs on her') is dismissed
in the same sarcastic way.

August 1st - Sept 11th

Pandora goes on holiday to Tunisia (an unusual destination, certainly

not 'fun-in-the-sun) and Adrian pines for her while she is away. When
she comes back he is 'racked with sexuality' and Pandora suggests a
trial separation because the 'light to medium petting will turn quite heavy
soon'. Adrian is also 'racked with sexuality when remembering 'Mrs
O'Leary's knickers'. He goes to Scotland on holiday with his mother and
'Bimbo' (her nickname for Mr Lucas) and meets an American boy,
Hamish Mancini, whose mother is on her 'fourth honeymoon'. While in
conversation with some neighbours also holidaying there, Adrian finds
out that Mr Lucas's wife 'left him for another woman' . The description of
the holiday is quite savagely anti-Scotland (does Ms Townsend not like
the Celts either?) and you need to read Adrian's 'thoughts on Scotland'
on p.115. Just who is satirising what, here?
Bert moves out of the Singh's and back into his old house. Mr Mole,
Adrian, Pandora and her parents clean it for him and it 'looks great'
when they are finished.

The letter from Hamish Mancini in Standard English translation:

Hi Adrian, How are you? I hope you're still going out with Pandora. She
sounds great. I loved Scotland, it was brilliant. You are a great human
being, Adrian. I think I was a bit out of it when we talked, but Dr
Eagleburger, my psychiatrist is doing great work on my libido (sex
drive). My Mum is really upset at the moment because husband number
four has turned out to be a transvestite (TV) and has more Calvin Klein
clothes than she has! Isn't autumn miserable? Bloody leaves
everywhere....

You need to comment on the American idiolect and idiom and also on
the fact that it doesn't 'travel' very well. Neither Adrian, Pandora, Mr
Mole or Bert understand it. Again, Townsend is using satire. This time
it's aimed at the Americans.

The start of the new school year in September gives us the list of items
and prices for Adrian's school uniform. Do a quick comparison against
the cost of the same items twenty years later and you'll get something of
a shock, but remember that these prices at the time were quite high.
Also note the references to O Levels and CSE exams, later replaced by
GCSE's (also known as Key Stage 4 tests). If you want to comment on
education issues, then you will have to do some research on the old
exam system - briefly CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) was a
little less academically challenging than O Level (Ordinary Level). Pupils
would take O Levels in the higher academic classes and CSE's in the
lower ones. Adrian is doing a combination of both and note how he opts
to do 'soft options' like Media Studies and Parentcraft. At the time, there
was a very fluid situation with regard to available subjects, especially for
CSE . At a school where I taught, for example, there was a course
called 'Rural Studies' which was really gardening for not-very-bright
students. They dug potato trenches and grew very large marrows and
all got Grade1 results, if I remember correctly.
Please give very high marks to Mr Dock, the English teacher, for his
riposte to Adrian's explanation about being a 'one-parent-family-child'.
Seriously funny satire on the fashionable 'political correctness' which
unfortunately still continues to devalue our language.

Sept 12th - Dec 31st

You need to have a look at the character of Rick Lemon (good name,
that) the youth leader and his girlfriend 'Tit' (short for Titia - also
probably a contraction of Patricia) Lemon and Tit are very clever
stereotypes. They 'reject' fruit in Sainsbury's (an 'upper-class'
supermarket) which comes from 'unacceptable' countries. South Africa,
for example, was an oppressive regime which mistreated its black
population (apartheid) and Rick's rejection of all produce from places
like this leaves him with only 'English rhubarb' in his trolley. (Note that
'rhubarb' is also sometimes used to indicate someone speaking
rubbish). Tit is 'cramming the trolley with pulses and rice' and has 'hairy
ankles'. Adrian's father likes 'stockings, suspenders, mini-skirts and low
necklines'. He is, according to Adrian, 'dead old fashioned'. Tit and
Lemon, presumably are terribly modern?

On the subject of food, you can also comment on the school dinner
menu, which really did 'phase out' custard and 'hot puddings' about this
time. Schools went on to a system of outside contracted catering and
many of the traditional kitchens had to phase out the traditional hot
lunches cooked on the premises because of costing implications.
Schools went on to a system called LMS (Local Management of
Schools) and were responsible for managing budgets themselves. One
of the casualties was often the kitchen system. It was cheaper and
quicker to warm up pies and fry chips, so school dinners became quite
basic. The typical menu Adrian quotes (page 121) is still pretty common
in schools, although things seem to have begun to change recently, with
more emphasis on healthy diets.

The Four D trip to the British Museum is pretty standard and very
accurate indeed. (I speak as one who has been there and cleaned up
the sick on outward and return journeys). Obviously, Townsend
exaggerates for comic effect but the antics are certainly accurate. We
were banned from a theme park in Yorkshire after a boat load of Fourth
year boys killed several ducks on the ornamental pond. They just
weren't quick enough to get out of the way of the oars, apparently. Poor
Ms Fossington-Gore is all I can say. She's well out of it.

Bert goes into the Alderman Cooper Sunshine Home (note the irony - an
old people's home is anything but sunny) and Adrian visits him. This is
quite subtly poignant. Adrian says 'the old people looked as though they
were thinking' and tells us that the Social Services 'painted the walls
orange to try to cheer the old people up'. It doesn't work, though.

The main section in this extract is Bert's visit to Adrian's house for tea.
Adrian's attempt to cook from the 'Cordon Bleu for the Elderly' recipes is
(not surprisingly) a complete failure and Pandora's father and Mr Mole
get very drunk. I like the section about the 'thin lips' on both Pandora
and her mother ('women must teach young girls to do this') and once
more we have a sardonic swipe at fast food, with Mrs Singh's laughter
at the Vesta curry. Bert's tears when he has to go back to the Sunshine
Home are poignant, but Townsend once more achieves a high degree of
subtlety and prevents a maudlin effect by having Bert put the brakes on
his wheelchair as he is wheeled out to the car.

Rick Lemon organises a youth club expedition to Derbyshire, to practise

survival techniques (probably a swipe here at the Duke of Edinburgh
Scheme, although Townsend doesn't mention the name at all). Adrian's
survival food is ludicrously heavy - mostly tins and big packets of
perishable stuff. He can 'hardly carry it back from Sainsbury's' and
leaves out the two most important items to save weight - the toilet roll
and the cornflakes. The expedition is a disaster. Adrian has 'lived like an
ignoble savage 'for two days!' His reaction to outdoor life is quite a
predictable urban child's reaction. No chips, no television, 'wiping my
bum on leaves' and having to be rescued by the Mountain Rescue
Service make him feel that it is 'wonderful to be back in civilisation.'
Again, Townsend is satirising a trend - this time one which
(unfortunately) still seems to be fashionable. Like the school outing to
the British Museum, this is a chapter of accidents for Adrian, who learns
nothing from the experience at all.

Adrian's hospital visit to have his tonsils out gives an interesting picture
of the National Health Service - over stretched, foreign nursing staff, lost
patient notes and very long delays before surgery. Adrian decides to
'join BUPA (a private health scheme) as soon as they'll have me'.

The bonfire at the firework party in aid of the Marriage Guidance Council
('a good community effort') fails to burn up the copies of 'Now'
magazine, donated by the newsagent and Adrian decides to start a
literary magazine at school called 'The Voice of Youth'. Claire Neilson's
punk poem pretty well sums up the 'punk philosophy' (page 146)
although she submits it under an assumed name 'because her father is
a Conservative councillor'. Adrian's editorial is incredibly naive, but
typical of the style of school publications, as is the content. Note the
references to 'stencils' to produce the master sheets for printing the
magazines. Before computers became common for home use,
duplicating was done by means of 'cutting stencils' - a typewriter would
be used to make impressions on a kind of 'skin' of flimsy paper with a
heavier paper backing. This 'master sheet' would be rolled round a drum
on an offset machine and acted as the master stencil for duplicating
copies. Twenty five pence a copy for the magazine is ludicrously over-
priced, so it is not surprising that 'five hundred copies were locked in the
games cupboard' by the end of the first day.

Adrian's mother comes back home on November 29th and discovers

that the overdue phone bill (for the calls to Pandora on holiday) amounts
to 369. Obviously Mrs Mole knows her son very well, because she
makes the 'tight fisted sod cough up some of his building society
savings' to pay for it.

The 'experimental nativity play' at school is called 'Manger to Star',

directed by trendy Miss Elf, who 'lives with a West Indian in a terrace in
the town'. The head is not impressed when he watches rehearsals,
especially with the 'simulated labour in the manger'. He wants 'three
wise men dressed in dressing gowns and tea towels'. Miss Elf likes
improvisation and Adrian and Pandora like the 'private Mary & Joseph
rehearsal in (Adrian's) bedroom.' Another topical reference is to the fox
fur coat, lent to Pandora and worn by Pandora's mother to the Marriage
Guidance Christmas dinner. Fur was still fashionable at the time this
book was written, although it was not long before it became another
victim of political and ecological correctness and pretty well died out as
an acceptable fashion accessory. Adrian's attempt to get the coat back
by breaking into Pandora's house during a snow storm is pure farce, as
is the school concert and the performance of the nativity play.

The Christmas period is a clever and quite sharply observed account of

a typical family gathering with relations who never meet at any other
time, too much drink, cooking disasters (the frozen turkey that Mrs Mole
tries to defrost in the bath on Christmas day) and a visit to the
pantomime. Note the carol singing episode. Pandora and Adrian really
do manage to con a great deal of money out of drunks by singing carols
outside pubs. If you want to make a social observation, then you could
comment on the erosion of traditional family values and maybe also on
the way in which consumerism is becoming more marked. Adrian's
present (the racing bike) is paid for by American Express and his new
outfit for the pantomime comes courtesy of his father's Barclaycard.

December 31st - April 3rd

The last four months' entries take the reader from New Year's Eve (one
year on from the starting point of the novel) to the outbreak of the
Falkland's Conflict (for some reason it wasn't officially called a 'War')
with Argentina. Adrian's resolutions are as facile as the ones at the
beginning of the narrative and his resolution to learn a new word every
day stops on January 5th.

Bert and Queenie get married and Adrian brings all but two copies of the
'Voice of Youth' back home because 'Mr Jones needs the games
cupboard'. Mrs Mole starts to hold her 'women's rights meetings in our
lounge' and Adrian works for his exams. Mr Mole is still unemployed (the
unemployment figures under Mrs Thatcher's government were
astronomical) and has his credit cards taken away from him. He decides
to become self-employed, making spice racks in the spare bedroom and
spends the last of his redundancy money on materials.

You will have noticed the political references in the book, and need to do
some research into political developments at the time. The SDP was the
Social Democrat Party, which was formed as an alternative opposition
party to Thatcher's government by a break-away group of Liberals and
Socialists. It didn't last very long, but at the time, it was seen as
significant and did cause some conflict in Labour and Liberal ranks.
Pandora's mother favours it, but Pandora's father supports the hard-line
left wing politics of Tony Benn - once thought to be a serious contender
for leadership if the Labour party achieved power. Adrian's comments
about Mrs Thatcher on page 175 are interesting. She really did (does)
have 'eyes like a psychotic killer, but a voice like a gentle person'.
Probably the reason the Conservatives stayed in power for so long. The
references to Ms Elf's boyfriend, Winston, who has a Master's Degree,
but can't get a job are accurate and although the incident when she
draws the moustache on Thatcher's portrait in the Head's study is
played for laughs, the action itself is quite understandable. The phrase
'three million unemployed' was widely reported in the Press at the time
and it was only the Falklands Conflict that made it possible for Thatcher
to survive a serious challenge to her Premiership and get elected for
another term.

The 'Pink Brigade' radical group that Adrian and his friends form has
naive objectives - 'war (we are against it) peace (we are for it) - but the
sentiments do reflect the time quite well. Note they are 'pink' rather than
'red' - slightly left wing rather than fully communist. The family has to go
on the Social Security because of Adrian's father's failure to sell any
spice racks and Mrs Mole gives up smoking and calls the family
'nouveau poor'. (Translates as 'new poor' - 'nouveau rich' was the
opposite - people who made a great deal of money by dealing in
currency, which was part of the capitalist ideal encouraged by the
Thatcher government)

Adrian's father manages to get a job, supervising a 'gang of skinheads

and punks' on a renovation project on a canal bank. You need to look up
the details about things like the Youth Opportunity Schemes (YOP's)
which were government measures to occupy large numbers of badly
educated school leavers (Baz, Daz, Maz, Kev and the like) on minimum
wages to get unemployment figures down.

The outbreak of the Falklands War, Adrian's fifteenth birthday and his
abortive attempt at glue sniffing (he sticks his nose to the model plane
he is assembling) bring the diary entries to a close. It is quite obvious
that Townsend intends a sequel (there have in fact been several) each
one chronicling the times with a mixture of sarcasm and sharp satire.