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Funny books guaranteed to make you laugh out loud

With the dawn of a new millennium about to break, the Nineties was a strange, floating decade of positivity, hope and something called the World Wide Web. 

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Books that defined the 2000s

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Features

Dazzling, raucous, rarely alone: a history of single mums in books

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7 extremely funny books written by women

13 of Adrian Mole's most insightful observations

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13 Adrian Mole quotes that shaped our world view

Abridged Edition

Penguin Readers Level 3: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ (ELT Graded Reader)

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online. 
 
Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. 
 
The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary. 
 
The Secret Life of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, a Level 3 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing first conditional, past continuous and present perfect simple for general experience. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages. 
 
Adrian Mole is a 13-year-old boy. Adrian writes a diary about his school, his family and, of course, love. "There's a new girl in our class . . . I think I might love her. I am 13 ¾ years old, so I'm old enough for love!" 
 
Visit the Penguin Readers website 
Exclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946. Despite not learning to read until the age of eight, leaving school at fifteen with no qualifications and having three children by the time she was in her mid-twenties, she always found time to read widely. She also wrote secretly for twenty years. After joining a writers' group at The Phoenix Theatre, Leicester, she won a Thames Television award for her first play, Womberang, and became a professional playwright and novelist. After the publication of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Sue continued to make the nation laugh and prick its conscience. She wrote seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries and five other popular novels - including The Queen and I, Number Ten and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - and numerous well received plays. Sue passed away in 2014 at the age of sixty-eight. She remains widely regarded as Britain's favourite comic writer.

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. 
 
The Secret Life of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, a Level 3 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing first conditional, past continuous and present perfect simple for general experience. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages. 
 
Adrian Mole is a 13-year-old boy. Adrian writes a diary about his school, his family and, of course, love. "There's a new girl in our class . . . I think I might love her. I am 13 ¾ years old, so I'm old enough for love!"

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ is the first book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series, reissued in Penguin's ORIGINALS collection of iconic teen fiction. 
 
Friday January 2nd 
 I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. 
 
 Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. 
 
Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared. 
 
Praise for Adrian Mole (and by extension, Sue Townsend): 
 
'I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading' Tom Sharpe 
 
'A satire of our times. Very funny indeed' Sunday Times 
 
'We laugh both at Mole and with him. A wonderful comic read, that, like all the best comedy, says something rather meaningful' Heat 
 
----- 
 
Sue Townsend is Britain's favourite comic author. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, as well as The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year, all of which are highly acclaimed bestsellers. She also wrote numerous well-received plays.

Funny, moving and a poke in the eye for adult morality

Townsend [is] the absolute monarch of comic fiction

Sue Townsend is one of Britain's favourite comic authors. Her hugely successful novels include eight Adrian Mole books, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾), Number Ten, Ghost Children, The Queen and I, Queen Camilla and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, all of which are highly-acclaimed bestsellers. Sue passed away in 2014 and is survived by her husband, four children, ten grandchildren and millions of avid readers.

At thirteen years old, Adrian Mole has more than his fair share of problems - spots, ill-health, parents threatening to divorce, rejection of his poetry and much more - all recorded with brilliant humour in his diary.

Adrian Mole Book 2

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole is the second book in Sue Townsend's brilliantly funny Adrian Mole series. 
 
Sunday July 18th 
My father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched. 
 
In this second instalment of teenager Adrian Mole's diaries, the Mole family is in crisis and the country is beating the drum of war. While his parents have reconciled after both embarked on disastrous affairs, Adrian is shocked to learn of his mother's pregnancy. 
 
And even though at the mercy of his rampant hormones and the fickle whims of the divine Pandora, a victim of a broken home and his own tortured (though unrecognised) genius, Adrian continues valiantly to chronicle the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence. 
________ 
 
'Funny, moving and a poke in the eye for adult morality' Sunday Express 
 
'Written with great verve, and showing an uncanny understanding of the young, Sue Townsend holds the balance between innocence and precocity and the result is both hilarious and salutary' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Life's no fun for an adolescent intellectual. For the reader it's a hoot' New Statesman

Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself

One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us

Adrian Mole will be remembered some day as one of England's great diarists

The funniest, most bitter-sweet book you're likely to read this year

Sunday July 18th 
 
My father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched. 
 
In this second instalment of teenager Adrian Mole's diaries, the Mole family is in crisis and the country is beating the drum of war. While his parents have reconciled after both embarked on disastrous affairs, Adrian is shocked to learn of his mother's pregnancy. 
 
And even though at the mercy of his rampant hormones and the fickle whims of the divine Pandora, a victim of a broken home and his own tortured (though unrecognised) genius, Adrian continues valiantly to chronicle the pains and pleasures of a misspent adolescence.

The Secret Diary & Growing Pains of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾

'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
FEATURED IN 'THE 100 BOOKS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD' BBC ARTS 
 
The FIRST TWO BOOKS in the hilarious and iconic Adrian Mole series from comic legend Sue Townsend. 
________ 
 
Friday January 2nd 
 
I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. 
 
Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. 
 
Telling us candidly about his parents' marital troubles, The Dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', his love for the divine Pandora and his horror at learning of his mother's pregnancy, Adrian's painfully honest diary is a hilarious and heartfelt chronicle of misspent adolescence. 
_________ 
 
'I've never experienced a greater sense of recognition than when reading The Secret Diary' David Nicholls 
 
'Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times 
 
'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'One of the great comic creations' Daily Mirror 
 
THE SECRET DIARY OF ADRIAN MOLE IS NOW A MAJOR MUSICAL 
 
Features the complete texts of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole.

I've never experienced a greater sense of recognition than when reading The Secret Diary

Townsend's writing is still a delight, Adrian's poetry is still dreadful, and his sense of self-importance is still hilarious

I not only wept, I howled and hooted and had to get up and walk around the room and wipe my eyes so that I could go on reading

Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it

A classic. The Adrian Mole diaries are thoroughly subversive. A true hero for our time

Adrian Mole is one of literature's great underachievers; his tragedy is that he knows it and the sadness of this undercuts the humour and makes us laugh not until, but while, it hurts

Friday January 2nd 
 
I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. 
 
Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

Adrian Mole: The Prostrate Years

The sensational final instalment in comic legend Sue Townsend's hilarious and iconic Adrian Mole series 
 
'Effortlessly hilarious. Brilliant satire and tragedy' Times 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
Read as Adrian continues to struggle with his love life, endures a painfully awkward school play and contemplates the unsettling prospect of applying genital poultice . . . 
__________ 
 
Sunday 1st July 
 
NO SMOKING DAY. A momentous day! Smoking in a public place or place of work is forbidden in England. Though if you are a prisoner, an MP or a member of the Royal Family you are exempt. 
 
Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well. 
 
The secondhand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography (A Girl Called Shit). And Adrian's nightly trips to the lavatory have become alarmingly frequent . . . 
 
This laugh-out-loud final chapter in Adrian's story will have you hooked from the first page as you discover what he gets up to next. 
__________ 
 
'A tour de force by a comic genius and if it isn't the best book published this year, I'll eat my bookshelf' Daily Mail, Books of the Year 
 
'Hilarious. Comic gold' Sunday Times 
 
'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Sue Townsend was simply one of the funniest writes who ever wore socks, and her Adrian Mole series is a satirical gem that follows her hapless protagonist from adolescence to middle age, revealing some sharp home truths about British society in the process. At thirty-nine and a half, Adrian is convinced he's too young to have prostrate problems. He's wrong. If anyone can shake a comic first at cancer, it's Townsend.

In this book the comedy is all the sharper, and more poignant, for its melancholy contrasts, the emotional danger and the sense that time is always running out.

Sue Townsend has always had an unflinching sense of humour - the more incongruously awful the situation, the more she can make us laugh...this is a seriously lovely book.

Like Evelyn Waugh's Captain Grimes, Adrian is 'one of the immortals' and the series of his diaries the comic masterpiece of our time

This hilarious and poignant tale of Adrian Mole's early middle age reaffirms that Sue Townsend has created 'one of the great comic characters of our time'

Adrian Mole is thirty-nine and a quarter. He lives in the country in a semi-detached converted pigsty with his wife Daisy and their daughter. His parents George and Pauline live in the adjoining pigsty. But all is not well. 
 
The secondhand bookshop in which Adrian works is threatened with closure. The spark has fizzled out of his marriage. His mother is threatening to write her autobiography (A Girl Called Shit). And Adrian's nightly trips to the lavatory have become alarmingly frequent. 
 
As his troubles multiply, a drunken call to old flame Dr Pandora Braithwaite (BA, MA, PhD, MP and Junior Minister) awakens memories of what might have been and causes Adrian to wonder: is Pandora the only one who can possibly save him?

Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction

'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
The hilarious SEVENTH BOOK in Sue Townsend's bestselling series, sees Adrian fall in love, be inconvenienced by the war and face his new nemesis: a swan from the local canal . . . 
_____________ 
 
 Wednesday April 2nd 
 My birthday. 
 I am thirty-five today. I am officially middle-aged. It is all downhill from now. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death. 
 
 Adrian Mole is middle-aged but still scribbling. 
 
Working as a bookseller and living in Leicester's Rat Wharf; finding time to write letters of advice to Tim Henman and Tony Blair; locked in mortal combat with a vicious swan called Gielgud; measuring his expanding bald spot; and trying to win-over the voluptuous Daisy . . . 
 
Adrian yearns for a better more meaningful world. But he's not ready to surrender his pen yet... 
______________ 
 
 'Hilarious. Deft, gleeful mockery impales modish fads, from home make-overs to new-age crazes, while fiercer irony is trained on the country's involvement with Iraq' Sunday Times 
 
 'Richly comic ... stuffed full of humour, tragedy, vanity, pathos and, very occasionally, wisdom' Guardian 
 
 'Completely hilarious, laugh-out-loud, a joy' Daily Mirror

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the seventh book in his diaries where Adrian falls in love, is inconvenienced by the war and faces his new nemesis: a swan from the local canal

As funny as anything Townsend has written, in which the loft-dwelling Mole wrestles with credit-card debt, WMD and where to find a dentist

The funniest book of the year. I can think of no more comical read

He will be remembered some day as one of England's great diarists

Wednesday April 2nd 
 
My birthday. 
 
I am thirty-five today. I am officially middle-aged. It is all downhill from now. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death. 
 
Adrian Mole is middle-aged but still scribbling. Working as a bookseller and living in Leicester's Rat Wharf; finding time to write letters of advice to Tim Henman and Tony Blair; locked in mortal combat with a vicious swan called Gielgud; measuring his expanding bald spot; and trying to win-over the voluptuous Daisy . . . Adrian yearns for a better more meaningful world. But he's not ready to surrender his pen yet . . .

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001

'An achingly funny anti-hero' Daily Mail 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
In the SIXTH book in Sue Townsend's hilarious and iconic series, Adrian, Leicester's most unlikely ex-con, faces the nit-infested reality of being a single parent . . . 
__________ 
 
 Monday January 3, 2000 
 
 So how do I greet the New Millennium? In despair. I'm a single parent, I live with my mother . . . I have a bald spot the size of a jaffa cake on the back of my head . . . I can't go on like this, drifting into early middle-age. I need a Life Plan . . . 
 
 The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian Mole has become a martyr: a single-father bringing up two young boys in an uncaring world. 
 
With the ever-unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother Brett sponging off him; and literary success elusive, Adrian tries to make ends meet and find a purpose. 
 
 But little does he realise that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror . . . 
__________ 
 
 'One of the great comic creations of our time. Almost every page of his diaries bring a smile to the face' Scotsman 
 
 'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the sixth book in his diaries where Adrian, Leicester's most unlikely ex-con, faces the nit-infested reality of being a single parent

Told with Townsend's trademark deadpan humour and cringe-worthy mishaps. To people of a certain age, Adrian Mole was their Harry Potter

Adrian Mole is one of the great comic creations of our time

To people of a certain age, Adrian Mole was their Harry Potter. Loveable in its celebration of mediocrity, it's told with Townsend's trademark deadpan humour

The diaries are a satire of our times...very funny indeed

Monday January 3, 2000 
 
So how do I greet the New Millennium? In despair. I'm a single parent, I live with my mother . . . I have a bald spot the size of a jaffa cake on the back of my head . . . I can't go on like this, drifting into early middle-age. I need a Life Plan . . . 
 
The 'same age as Jesus when he died', Adrian Mole has become a martyr: a single-father bringing up two young boys in an uncaring world. With the ever-unattainable Pandora pursuing her ambition to become Labour's first female PM; his over-achieving half-brother Brett sponging off him; and literary success ever-elusive, Adrian tries to make ends meet and find a purpose. 
 
But little does he realise that his own modest life is about to come to the attention of those charged with policing The War Against Terror . . .

Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years

'One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book' Daily Mirror 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
The fifth book in his hilarious diaries, where Adrian faces divorce, fatherhood and (short-lived) television stardom . . . 
__________ 
 
Adrian Mole is thirty, single and a father. 
 
His cooking at a top London restaurant has been equally mocked ('the sausage on my plate could have been a turd') and celebrated (will he be the nation's first celebrity offal chef?). 
 
And the love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is too busy as the newly elected MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch to notice him. 
 
 Frustrated, disappointed and undersexed, Adrian despairs until a letter from his past changes everything . . . 
__________ 
 
 'With the Mole books, Townsend has an unrivalled claim to be this country's foremost practising comic novelist' Mail on Sunday 
 
 'Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself' The Times 
 
'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran 
 
 'Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him' Evening Standard

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the fifth book in his diaries, where Adrian faces divorce, fatherhood and (short-lived) television stardom

One of the greatest comic creations. I can't remember a more relentlessly funny book

With the Mole books, Townsend has an unrivalled claim to be this country's foremost practising comic novelist

Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation. Every sentence is witty and well thought out, and the whole has reverberations beyond itself

Three cheers for Mole's chaotic, non-achieving, dysfunctional family. We need him

Wednesday August 13th 
 
Here I am again - in my old bedroom. Older, wiser, but with less hair, unfortunately. The atmosphere in this house is very bad. The dog looks permanently exhausted. Every time the phone rings my mother snatches it up as though a kidnapper were on the line. 
 
Adrian Mole is thirty, single and a father. His cooking at a top London restaurant has been equally mocked ('the sausage on my plate could have been a turd' - AA Gill) and celebrated (will he be the nation's first celebrity offal chef?). And the love of his life, Pandora Braithwaite, is the newly elected MP for Ashby-de-la-Zouch - one of 'Blair's Babes'. He is frustrated, disappointed and undersexed. 
But a letter from Adrian's past is about to change everything . . .

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years

'A classic. The Adrian Mole diaries are thoroughly subversive. A true hero for our time' Richard Ingrams 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written - with apologies to Samuel Pepys, Bridget Jones and me' ADAM KAY 
 
The FOURTH book in Adrian Mole's diaries, where we catch up with a hapless Adrian and his desperate attempts to win back the love of his life. 
__________ 
 
 Thursday January 3rd 
 
 I have the most terrible problems with my sex life. It all boils down to the fact that I have no sex life. At least not with another person. 
 
 Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the unenviable situation of living with the love-of-his-life as she goes about shacking up with other men. 
 
Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped. 
 
 But Adrian is about to discover that extraordinary and wonderful things may blossom even in the wilderness . . . 
__________ 
 
 'A very, very funny book' Sunday Times 
 
 'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the fourth book in his diaries, where we catch up with a hapless Adrian and his desperate attempts to win back the love of his life

Adrian Mole really is a brilliant comic creation

Thursday January 3rd 
 
I have the most terrible problems with my sex life. It all boils down to the fact that I have no sex life. At least not with another person. 
 
Finally given the heave-ho by Pandora, Adrian Mole finds himself in the unenviable situation of living with the love-of-his-life as she goes about shacking up with other men. Worse, as he slides down the employment ladder, from deskbound civil servant in Oxford to part-time washer-upper in Soho, he finds that critical reception for his epic novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland, is not quite as he might have hoped. 
But Adrian is about to discover that extraordinary and wonderful things may blossom even in the wilderness . . .

The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole

'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times 
 
In the third instalment of the hilarious Adrian Mole series, 16-year-old Adrian navigates his way into adulthood . . . 
 
 Monday June 13th 
 I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike. 
 
 Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. 
 
Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . . 
__________ 
 
 'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 
 
 'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see in it' Sunday Telegraph 
 
'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the third book in his diaries, as 16-year-old Adrian navigates his way into adulthood

Monday June 13th 
 
I had a good, proper look at myself in the mirror tonight. I've always wanted to look clever, but at the age of twenty years and three months I have to admit that I look like a person who has never even heard of Jung or Updike. 
 
Adrian Mole is an adult. At least that's what it says on his passport. But living at home, clinging to his threadbare cuddly rabbit 'Pinky', working as a paper pusher for the DoE and pining for the love of his life, Pandora, has proved to him that adulthood isn't quite what he expected. Still, without the slings and arrows of modern life what else would an intellectual poet have to write about . . . 
 
Included here are two other less well-known diarists: Sue Townsend and Margaret Hilda Roberts, a rather ambitious grocer's daughter from Grantham.

Adrian Mole: The Collected Poems

'It's really, really, really funny' David Walliams 
 
 Mole Press - a brand new imprint of Penguin Books - is proud to announce the first publication of The Collected Poems of Adrian Mole to mark the author's 50TH birthday. 
 
--------------------------- 
 
 'Edgy politics, tortured eroticism, misunderstood intellect, changing Britain - a whiff of the sublime. Mole's contribution is significant' Daily Telegraph 
 
 Featuring poems scattered over nearly thirty years of writing and salvaged from the diaries 'authored' by one Sue Townsend, this slim volume features more than thirty pieces of Adrian's unique art. 
 
 From his timeless first documented poem - The Tap - via classic odes to his muse, first and only true love Pandora (I adore ya), we follow Adrian's life in verse form. We not only witness his burgeoning political anger in works like Mrs Thatcher (Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?) but also see in later poems his merciless examination of the hollow shell of masculinity as well as documenting his declining libido in tragic pieces like To My Organ. 
 
 For the first time in a single volume, these are the collected poems of misunderstood intellectual and tortured poet Adrian Mole. 
 
 'I ruthlessly exploited Adrian. But he can't afford to sue me' Sue Townsend 
 
 'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times 
 
 'One of the great comic creations' Daily Mirror 
 
 'The funniest person in the world' Caitlin Moran

Mole Press - a brand new imprint of Penguin Books - is proud to announce the first publication of The Collected Poems of Adrian Mole to mark the author's 50TH birthday.

Edgy politics, tortured eroticism, misunderstood intellect, changing Britain - a whiff of the sublime. Mole's contribution is significant

People will want to read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole forever. The reason is simple: it's really, really, really funny

The publishers could offer a money back guarantee if you don't laugh and be sure they wouldn't have to write a single check

Mole Press - a brand new imprint of Penguin Books - is proud to announce the first publication of The Collected Poems of Adrian Mole. 
 
From his timeless first poem - The Tap - via classic odes to his muse, first and only true love Pandora (I adore ya) as well as his burgeoning political anger in Mrs Thatcher (Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?) and on through late works examining the hollow shell of masculinity and his declining libido - such as To My Organ - Adrian Mole moves readers in ways they cannot expect.

True Confessions of Margaret Hilda Roberts Aged 14 ¼

Discover the brilliantly funny True Confessions of Margaret Hilda Roberts by Sue Townsend, 'the funniest person in the world' - Caitlin Moran, The Times 
 
Tuesday May 24th 
 
Had a lie in until 6am. Then got out of bed and had a brisk rub down with the pumice stone. I opened the curtains and saw that the sun was shining brightly. (A suspicion is growing in my mind that the BBC is not to be trusted.) 
 
Margaret Hilda Roberts is a rather ambitious 14 ¼ year old grocer's daughter from Grantham. She can't abide laziness, finds four hours of chemistry homework delightful and believes she is of royal birth - or at least destined for great things. But Margaret knows that good things never come to those who wait . . . 
 
These are the secret diary entries of a girl born into an ordinary life, yet who might just go on to become something really rather extraordinary, and she is brilliantly brought vividly to life by bestselling author Sue Townsend, Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 
 
'Essential reading for Mole followers' Times Educational Supplement 
 
'Wonderfully funny and sharp as knives' Sunday Times

Rebuilding Coventry

Discover the brilliant, hilarious and unlikely story of a woman's life rebuilt, from the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series and The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year 
 
'There are two things that you should know about me immediately: the first is that I am beautiful, the second is that yesterday I killed a man. Both things were accidents . . .' 
 
When Midlands housewife Coventry Dakin kills her next-door neighbour, in a wild attempt to stop him from strangling his wife, she goes on the run. 
 
Finding herself alone and friendless in London, she tries to lose herself in the city's maze of streets. 
 
There, she meets a bewildering cast of eccentric characters. 
 
From Professor Willoughby D'Eresby and his perpetually naked wife Letitia, to Dodo, a care-in the-community inhabitant of Cardboard City, they all contrive to change Coventry in ways she could never have foreseen . . . 
 
Praise for Sue Townsend: 
 
'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times 
 
'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent 
 
'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly

'There are two things that you should know about me immediately: the first is that I am beautiful, the second is that yesterday I killed a man. Both things were accidents . . .' 
 
When Midlands housewife Coventry Dakin kills her neighbour in a wild bid to prevent him from strangling his wife, she goes on the run. Finding herself alone and friendless in London she tries to lose herself in the city's maze of streets. 
 
There, she meets a bewildering cast of eccentric characters. From Professor Willoughby D'Eresby and his perpetually naked wife Letitia to Dodo, a care-in the-community inhabitant of Cardboard City, all of whom contrive to change Coventry in ways she could never have foreseen . . . 
 
Rebuilding Coventry is a brilliant, laugh-out-loud satire on modern Britain and the curious battle of the sexes.

The Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

'Hilarious and totally Townsend. There were parts where I laughed until I cried' Daily Mail 
 
What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year? 
 
Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be. 
 
The day her twins leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. For seventeen years she's wanted to yell at the world, 'Stop! I want to get off'. Finally, this is her chance. 
 
Her husband Brian, an astronomer having an unsatisfactory affair, is upset. Who will cook his dinner? Eva, he complains, is attention seeking. But word of Eva's defiance spreads. 
 
Legions of fans, believing she is protesting, gather in the street. While Alexander the white van man brings tea, toast and sympathy. And from this odd but comforting place Eva begins to see both herself and the world very, very differently. . . 
 
Bestselling author Sue Townsend has been Britain's favourite comic writer for over three decades. 
 
'Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy' Sunday Times 
 
'She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life' Independent 
 
'Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour' Women's Weekly 
 
'A funny, poignant look at modern family life' Daily Express

What happens when a duvet day turns into a duvet year? 
 
Sue Townsend, the bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series, returns with The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year, a funny and touching novel about what happens when someone stops being the person everyone wants them to be.

Proof, once more, that Townsend is one of the funniest writers around

Laugh-out-loud . . . a teeming world of characters whose foibles and misunderstandings provide glorious amusement. Something deeper and darker than comedy

She fills the pages with turmoil, anger, passion, love and big helpings of wit. It's full of colour and glows with life

Hilarious and totally Townsend. There were parts where I laughed until I cried

Touching and hilarious. Bursting with witty social commentary as well as humour

A funny, poignant look at modern family life

The day her children leave home, Eva climbs into bed and stays there. 
 
She's had enough - of her kids' carelessness, her husband's thoughtlessness and of the world's general indifference. 
 
Brian can't believe his wife is doing this. Who is going to make dinner? Taking it badly, he rings Eva's mother - but she's busy having her hair done. So he rings his mother - she isn't surprised. Eva, she says, is probably drunk. Let her sleep it off. 
 
But Eva won't budge. 
 
She makes new friends - Mark the window cleaner and Alexander, a very sexy handyman. She discovers Brian's been having an affair. And Eva realizes to her horror that everyone has been taking her for granted - including herself. 
 
But from this odd but comforting place she begins to see both the world and herself very, very differently. . .

The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman

Glimpse into the life of one of Britain's best-loved comic writers - Sue Townsend - with this hilarious collection of her anecdotes and musings. 
___________ 
 
Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend - all our welcome! 
 
This sparkling collection of Sue Townsend's hilarious non-fiction covers everything from hosepipe bans to Spanish restaurants, from writer's block to slug warfare, from slob holidays to the banning of beige. 
 
These funny, perceptive and touching pieces reveal Sue, ourselves and the nation in an extraordinary new light. Sit back and chortle away as one of Britain's most popular and acclaimed writers takes a feather to your funny bone. 
 
Witty, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman (Aged 55¾) is essential reading for any Sue Townsend fan. 
_____________ 
 
'Anyone who loved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole will enjoy this collection of witty and sharply observed jottings from the inimitable Sue Townsend. Great stuff' OK! 
 
'Full of homely, hilarious asides on the absurdities of domestic existence . . . What a fantastic advertisement for middle-age - it can't be bad if it's this funny' Heat 
 
'A welcome addition to any bookshelf' Hello! 
 
'It's as if Townsend has caught our idiosyncrasies on candid camera and is showing a rerun of all the silly clips . . . the ideal dip-in-and-out book' Time Out

Anyone who loved The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole will enjoy this collection of witty and sharply observed jottings from the inimitable Sue Townsend. Great stuff

Full of homely, hilarious asides on the absurdities of domestic existence . . . What a fantastic advertisement for middle-age - it can't be bad if it's this funny

'It's as if Townsend has caught our idiosyncrasies on candid camera and is showing a rerun of all the silly clips ... the ideal dip-in-and-out book'

Enter the world of Susan Lilian Townsend - sun-worshippers, work-shy writers, garden centre lovers and those in search of a good time are all welcome ... 
 
This sparkling collection of Sue Townsend's hilarious non-fiction covers everything from hosepipe bans to Spanish restaurants, from writer's block to slug warfare, from slob holidays to the banning of beige. 
 
These funny, perceptive and touching pieces reveal Sue, ourselves and the nation in an extraordinary new light. Sit back and chortle away as one of Britain's most popular and acclaimed writers takes a feather to your funny bone.

Ghost Children

Ghost Children is a compassionate and gritty examination of love and loss from one of Britain's most-loved writers, Sue Townsend 
 
How can she leave the past behind when he won't let her? 
 
 Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and he retreated from the world. Unable to accept what had happened between them both went their separate ways. 
 
 However, when Christopher makes a horrifying discovery whilst out walking his dog on the heath he finds that he is compelled to confront Angela about the past. As they start seeing each another again can they avoid the mistakes of the past? And will their future together be eclipsed by those mistakes of yesterday? 
 
 
 'Gripping and disturbing. Utterly absorbing' Independent 
 
 'Bleak, tender and deeply affecting. Seldom have I rooted so hard for a set of fictional individuals' Mail on Sunday 
 
 'Leaves one gasping for more' Daily Telegraph 
 
 'Engrossing, memorable and moving' Guardian 
 
 'Startling and raw' Observer

Seventeen years ago Angela Carr aborted an unwanted child. The child's father, Christopher Moore, was devastated by the loss and he retreated from the world. Unable to accept what had happened between them both went their separate ways. 
 
However, when Christopher makes a horrifying discovery whilst out walking his dog on the heath he finds that he is compelled to confront Angela about the past. As they start seeing each another again can they avoid the mistakes of the past? And will their future together be eclipsed by those mistakes of yesterday? 
 
A compelling fable of our times, Ghost Children is a compassionate and gritty examination of love and loss from one of Britain's most-loved writers, Sue Townsend.

Queen Camilla

THE BRILLIANTLY FUNNY SEQUEL TO THE QUEEN AND I FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE ADRIAN MOLE SERIES 
 
What if being Royal was a crime? 
 
The UK has come over all republican. The Royal Family exiled to an Exclusion Zone with the other villains and spongers. And to cap it all, the Queen has threatened to abdicate. 
 
Yet Prince Charles is more interested in root vegetables than reigning ... unless his wife Camilla can be Queen in a newly restored monarchy. 
 
But when a scoundrel who claims to be the couple's secret love-child offers to take the crown off their hands, the stage is set for a right Royal show down. 
 
And the question for Camilla (and rest of the country) will be: Queen of the vegetable patch or Queen of England? 
_____________ 
 
'Brilliantly satirical' Evening Standard 
 
'One of our finest living comic writers' The Times 
 
'Brilliantly funny' Closer 
 
'Another fantastic read from Townsend' OK!

[Townsend's] political fantasies achieve satire's difficult double aim of being credibly realistic and preposterously funny

A brilliantly satirical story - just the kind of book, one imagines, Camilla would keep in her loo

What if being Royal was a crime? 
 
The UK has come over all republican. The Royal Family exiled to an Exclusion Zone with the other villains and spongers. And to cap it all, the Queen has threatened to abdicate. 
 
Yet Prince Charles is more interested in root vegetables than reigning ... unless his wife Camilla can be Queen in a newly restored monarchy. But when a scoundrel who claims to be the couple's secret lovechild offers to take the crown off their hands, the stage is set for a right Royal show down. 
 
And the question for Camilla (and rest of the country) will be: 
Queen of the vegetable patch or Queen of England?

Number Ten

Number Ten is the brilliantly funny political satire by Sue Townsend, bestselling author of the Adrian Mole series 
 
'Wickedly entertaining. There is a gem on nearly every page. Nothing escapes Townsend's withering pen. Satirical, witty, observant' Observer 
____________ 
 
Behind the doors of the most famous address in the country, all is not well. 
 
Edward Clare was voted into Number Ten after a landslide election victory. But a few years later and it is all going wrong. 
 
The love of the people is gone. The nation is turning against him. 
 
Panicking, Prime Minister Clare enlists the help of Jack Sprat, the policeman on the door of No 10, and sets out to discover what the country really thinks of him. 
 
In disguise, they venture into the great unknown: the mean streets of Great Britain. 
 
And for the first time in years, the Prime Minister experiences everything life in this country has to offer - an English cream tea, the kindness of strangers, waiting for trains that never come and treatment in a hospital. 
 
And at last he remembers some of things he once really cared about . . . 
_____________ 
 
'Poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating' New Statesman 
 
'Hilarious. Sue Townsend's laughter is infectious' Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year

A wickedly entertaining and passionate swipe at New Labour

There is a gem on nearly every page. Nothing escapes Townsend's withering pen. Satirical, witty, observant . . . a clever book

Poignant, hilarious, heart-rending, devastating

A delight. Genuinely funny . . . compassion shines through the unashamedly ironic social commentary

Behind the doors of the most famous address in the country, all is not well. 
 
Edward Clare was voted into Number Ten after a landslide election victory. But a few years later and it is all going wrong. The love of the people is gone. The nation is turning against him. 
 
Panicking, Prime Minister Clare enlists the help of Jack Sprat, the policeman on the door of No 10, and sets out to discover what the country really thinks of him. In disguise, they venture into the great unknown: the mean streets of Great Britain. 
 
And for the first time in years, the Prime Minister experiences everything life in this country has to offer - an English cream tea, the kindness of strangers, waiting for trains that never come and treatment in a hospital - and at last he remembers some of things he once really cared about . . .

The Queen and I

The Royals Are Out of Office. 
 
The Sunday roast is burnt, the corgis are gone, and the monarchy’s gone Midlands — a hilarious British classic from the author of Adrian Mole 
 
-- 
 
The Royals, they're just like us . . . 
 
THE MONARCHY HAS BEEN DISMANTLED 
 
When a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands. 
 
Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed. 
 
But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else? 
____________ 
 
'No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact' The Times 
 
'Absorbing, entertaining . . . the funniest thing in print since Adrian Mole' Daily Telegraph 
 
'Kept me rolling about until the last page' Daily Mail

No other author could imagine this so graphically, demolish the institution so wittily and yet leave the family with its human dignity intact

Kept me rolling about until the last page

THE MONARCHY HAS BEEN DISMANTLED 
 
When a Republican party wins the General Election, their first act in power is to strip the royal family of their assets and titles and send them to live on a housing estate in the Midlands. 
 
Exchanging Buckingham Palace for a two-bedroomed semi in Hell Close (as the locals dub it), caviar for boiled eggs, servants for a social worker named Trish, the Queen and her family learn what it means to be poor among the great unwashed. But is their breeding sufficient to allow them to rise above their changed circumstance or deep down are they really just like everyone else?

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole, Penguin Audiobooks are re-releasing the audiobook edition of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 in downloadable audio. This classic of comic fiction is hilariously read by Stephen Mangan, who played Adrian Mole in the The Cappuccino Years and also starred in The Green Wing as the hapless Guy Secretan. 
 
Friday January 2nd 
 
I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. 
 
Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

Sue Townsend

I remember laughing hysterically at The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. An authentic working-class voice

Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year

Marvellous, touching and screamingly funny . . . set to become as much a cult book as The Catcher in the Rye

A series of endlessly funny diaries following the aspiring intellectual in his pursuit of the treacle-haired Pandora. Pompous, judgemental and agonised in a way so particular to teenage boys, Adrian's plight has been beloved ever since it was published in 1982. And it is just as relevant as ever – a new BBC adaptation has just been announced written by One Day's David Nicholls'

Adrian Mole Book 1

Friday January 2nd 
 
I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. 
 
Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

Sue Townsend

Praise for The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

I remember laughing hysterically at The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. An authentic working-class voice

Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year

One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us

I remember laughing hysterically at The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. An authentic working-class voice

Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year

One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us

I remember laughing hysterically at The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. An authentic working-class voice

Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year

One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us

Books by Sue Townsend

Series by Sue Townsend

Adrian Mole

Articles featuring Sue Townsend

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Dazzling, raucous, rarely alone: a history of single mums in books

7 extremely funny books written by women

13 Adrian Mole quotes that shaped our world view

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