Sue Townsend was, and remains, Britain's favourite comic novelist. 
 
For over thirty years, after the publication of her instant and iconic bestseller The Secret Diaries of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ in 1982, she made us weep with laughter and pricked the nation's conscience. Seven further volumes of Adrian's diaries followed, and all were highly acclaimed bestsellers. 
 
She also published five other hugely popular novels - including The Queen and I and The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year - as well as writing numerous well-received plays. Remarkably, Sue did not learn to read until she was eight and left school with no qualifications. As beloved by critics as she was by readers the length and breadth of the nation, she chronicled the lives of ordinary people in Britain through times of upheaval and great social change. 
 
She lived in Leicester all her Life, dying in the city that she loved in 2014.

Sue Townsend

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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.

The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman

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

True Confessions of Margaret Hilda Roberts Aged 14 ¼

THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION FEATURING A BRAND-NEW INTRODUCTION FROM CAITLIN MORAN 
 
'My comfort read. The best diaries ever written' ADAM KAY, GUARDIAN 
'Every child in the country should receive a copy on their thirteenth birthday' CAITLIN MORAN 
'One of literature's most endearing figures. Mole is an excellent guide for all of us' OBSERVER 
 
**In 2022 Sue Townsend was awarded the Legacy Achievement Award by the Comedy Women in Print prize** 
 
AS SEEN IN THE TIMES 
________ 
 
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 as he writes candidly about the dog, his parents' marital troubles and life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual.' 
 
 Forty years after it first appeared, Sue Townsend's comic masterpiece continues to be rediscovered by new generations of readers. 
________ 
 
'The UK's bestselling fiction book of the eighties and one of the great comic creations of the past half-century. Impeccable comic timing, evergreen comic writing. I had more pure reading pleasure than from any other book I read this year' John Self, The Times 
 
'Reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole when I was 14 felt quite like an awakening' GREG DAVIES, Sunday Times 
 
'Townsend has held a mirror up to the nation and made us happy to laugh at what we see' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 
 
 'One of Britain's most celebrated comic writers' GUARDIAN

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4

The 40th Anniversary Edition with an introduction from Caitlin Moran

Adrian Mole Book 1

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.

Ghost Children

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.

The True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole

The hilarious, bestselling follow-ups to Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 : The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole, True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole and Adrian Mole: The Wilderness together in one volume. 
 
 Sunday July 18th. 
 
 My father announced at breakfast that he is going to have a vasectomy. I pushed my sausages away untouched. 
 
Charting nearly ten years in the life of Adrian Mole, from his increasingly troubled adolescence and schooling to his first job as newt counter for the DoE, from his parents' marital troubles to his own difficult relationship with Pandora, from the failure of his early poems to the even grander failure of his epic novels, these three novels in one volume provide a hilarious portrait of one young man's coming of age. 
 
'He will be remembered some day as one of England's great diarists. No matter what your troubles may be Adrian Mole is sure to make you feel better' Evening Standard

The Adrian Mole Collection

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.

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.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾

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 Queen and I

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 Woman who Went to Bed for a Year

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 Cappuccino Years

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?

Queen Camilla

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!"

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

Abridged Edition

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 Growing Pains of Adrian Mole

Adrian Mole Book 2

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 . . .

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years

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 . . .

Adrian Mole and The Weapons of Mass Destruction

'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.

Rebuilding Coventry

'If I turn out to be mentally deranged in adult life, it will be all my mother's fault.' 
 
Adrian Mole continues to struggle valiantly against the slings and arrows of growing up and his own family's attempts to scar him for life in this second volume of his secret diary.

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.

Adrian Mole: The Collected Poems

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: The Prostrate Years

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 . . .

The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001

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 . . .

Number Ten

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